Medal Success for Edinburgh Athletes on the World Stage
Edinburgh students and staff contribute to Team GB’s success at the World University Games.
Over the past 2 weeks, the Italian city of Napoli has played host to the 30th annual World University Games – known as the Summer Universiade. Recognised as the second largest multisport event in the world, only surpassed by the Olympic Game the World University Games has seen over 10,000 athletes compete across 13 sports.
Amongst those competing were Edinburgh Swimmers, Kat Greenslade and David Cumberlidge representing Great Britain and Daniel Lim representing Malaysia. Kat and David were joined in team GB by divers Millie Fowler and Gemma McArthur. Completing the Edinburgh contingent was Performance Swimming coach, Matt Trodden, and Head of Sports Development, Ross Simpson, acting as Deputy Chef de Mission for Team GB.
Medal Success
Gemma McArthur made her mark on the competition with a spectacular run through qualification and an incredible performance in the final to take Team GB’s first medal of the games, picking up bronze for finishing 3rd in the Women’s Platform Final. The diving pool also saw a great display of skill from Mille Fowler on the 1m Springboard as she pushed through qualification and in a hard-fought final came in 8th place.
The success didn’t stop there. In the swimming pool, Edinburgh athletes excelled with Kat Greenslade making no fewer than four event finals and David Cumberlidge, who secured victory in the 50m Freestyle Final, collecting Team GB’s second Gold medal, by touching home in an incredible 21.97 seconds. This extraordinary swim makes David the fourth British man to record a sub-22.00 time in 50m freestyle – an amazing achievement!
It’s the first time I’ve gone under 22 seconds and it’s something I’ve been working towards for years and years and to finally get that was such an amazing feeling