Last updated: September 2007
Team GBR triumph at World Uni Games

Team GBR achieved their best ever results at the World University Games in Bangkok this summer, bringing home one gold, four silver and five bronze medals. The Games also saw a record number of personal bests.

The podium places were won across five sports- the first time this has happened in the last five years.

Britain’s chef de mission, Iain Moir was delighted with the overall performance of his squad especially given the competition they faced in Bangkok.

“Given the extremely high standard overall, the British team can be proud of their performances,” he said.

“We brought a relatively young and inexperienced team to Bangkok, and we have had many excellent personal performances which haven’t resulted in a medal because of the standard here,” he added.

“The medal table does not reflect the success we have had as a delegation here. I thought we’d get ten or twelve medals before we came out-and before I knew how difficult that would actually be and we’ve managed to get ten.”

“That is a great achievement and I’m very pleased for everyone here. Many governing bodies have had to sponsor their athletes in order for them to attend, and I am in no doubt that it has been money well spent.”

China finished top of the medals table, closely followed by Russia in second place and Ukraine in third. Britain finally finished in 28th position.

Britain’s greatest achievement of a gold medal was won on the track by Simeon Williamson in the men’s 100m.

Williamson produced a scintillating run to claim gold, 24 hours after he originally thought he’d won it. After initially crossing the line in 10.28 seconds, the Middlesex university student was adjudged to have false started and the officials ruled that the race must be run again. However, the European under 23 champion was not denied his title as he ran even faster to finish in 10.22 seconds ahead of China’s Peimeng Zhang and Neville Wright of Canada for the second time round.

Elsewhere there were silver medals for athlete Kadi-Ann Thomas (Brunel), shooter Rachel Parish (Southampton), swimmer Andrew Hunter (University of Stirling) and golfer Charles Ford (Tennessee), whilst the bronze medals were won by runner Charlotte Best (Loughborough), the women’s 4x400m track relay team, Matt Clay and Darren Mew (both at Bath) in the pool and fencer, Lawrence Halsted (Sussex).
The representatives of Great Britain did exceptionally well considering the standard of competition throughout the Games, with numerous Games records being broken across the board.

Their success is once again proven by the fact that several nations included world champions in their squads, as well as many Olympic hopefuls, all enhancing their preparation ahead of Beijing which is held next summer.

by Daniela Esposito