UWS athletes set to star at Birmingham Commonwealth Games

UWS Sport and Team UWS are delighted to confirm that a total of 12 UWS students, alumni and staff will be attending the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games later this month, to represent Team Scotland.

The delegation is headed up most notably by medal hopeful and UWS Sport Scholarship Athlete, Stephen Newns (Boxing, pictured below). Stephen will be looking to add Commonwealth success, at his second games, to his Team UWS Sports Personality of the Year award that he won earlier this year.

Joining Stephen at the Games is current student and UWS Sport Scholarship Athlete, Ross Connelly who is also attending his second Games, as he represents Scotland in Wrestling.

Team Scotland will look to inspire the next generation of Commonwealth Games athletes, that will have a strong UWS contingent. Up-and-coming athletes and coaches will enjoy a multi-games experience in Birmingham later this month as part of the 2022 Achieve programme, supported by a network of mentors with an impressive range of backgrounds and experiences to call on.

Attending the Games will be UWS Sport Scholar Jack MacGregor (Badminton) and mentors Caitlin Pringle and Ciaran O’Brien. Caitlin attends the Games with plenty of experience at performance level sport. A UWS alumni and former UWS Sport Scholar, Caitlin represented Scotland in Badminton in 2014 Glasgow Games before making the switch to professional Netball. Joining Caitlin will be UWS Head of Sport, Ciaran O’Brien, a former high performance swim coach who was involved in the GB pathway and 2012 Olympic Games.

A number of former UWS students will also be heading to Birmingham with plenty of experience in representing Team UWS across the British University and College Sport (BUCS) arena.

Two time Olympian, Kirsty Gilmour, will be heading to her 4th Commonwealth Games, looking to add Badminton Gold to her Silver from Glasgow 2014 and Bronze achievement at the 2018 Gold Coast Games. In the pool, Craig McNally, a serial BUCS medal winner will be heading out to his fourth Commonwealth Games. The former 200m Backstroke British Champion has represented Scotland, GB and UWS at the highest level including at the World and European Championships.

Former Team UWS Basketball captain and current Glasgow Rocks Pro Basketball captain Jonathan Bunyan will be joining Team Scotland at the 3x3 Basketball following his historic 4th place finish at the Gold Coast 2018.

Hockey duo Alan Forsyth and Lee Morton will suit up for Scotland following impressive GB careers whilst studying at UWS, and most notably Morton, who led Team UWS Men’s Hockey to the BUCS Premier Division.

Joining Caitlin Pringle from the Netball world will be Kelly Boyle as she looks to guide Team Scotland to medal success. On the bike will be UWS alumni Finn Crocket. The ‘Flying Finn’ will represent the nation in both the time-trial and the road race.

You can find full details of the Games schedule here on the official Birmingham 2022 website.