Swansea University Sports Awards
The first in person Swansea university sports awards for over 2 years took place at Brangwyn Hall at the start of June. The awards celebrate the best of the years sporting achievements of the university sports clubs.
This year saw the Table Tennis club shortlisted in three categories. Beth Richards was a finalist in sports woman of the year and received her full colours for representing Wales while at the university. The club’s men’s 1st team was a finalist for team of the year, having reached the last 16 in the cup, winning Division 1 South West and sealing promotion to the premier divisions by winning the playoffs.
The main award of the evening was the highly contested club of the year awarded for the club which has performed to an exceptional level across all areas including performance, fundraising, membership numbers, events, finances, organisation, and advertising. With the Table Tennis club up against strong opposition in Hockey, cheerleading, and aerial sport clubs, Table Tennis came out as winners.
Over the course of the season the club:
- Increased membership numbers by over 200%,
- Developed a wider university programme including social table tennis and casual coaching,
- won division 2 at the Team Championships,
- increased number of BUCS teams
- Men’s 1st team promoted to the BUCS Premiership
- women’s team finishing second in the premier division,
- hosted the Swansea Open with over 100 entries from all over the UK
- set up an adult coaching day to further develop players and community links.
“After a covid hit first year I’m really pleased the progress the club has made this year” – Matt Porter Head of table tennis at Swansea university. “The committee has worked so hard on so many projects and different aspects of the club, everyone has really pulled together, and this is just the start with so many exciting projects lined up moving forward”
Table Tennis at Swansea University is one of 6 high performance sports with athletes receiving high performance coaching, sport science services, athlete lifestyle management, physiotherapy and strength and conditioning support.
The programme currently offers 6+ hours of on the table training and for our high-performance players there are separate 1-2-1 or 1-2-2 multiball sessions. The performance programme is fully supported by Table Tennis Wales with exclusive opportunities to link up and train with the Welsh National squad sessions and joint training camps.
The university also offers Talented Athlete Scholarship Schemes (TASS) to highly talented student athletes with financial benefits and a support package which may include strength and conditioning training, physiotherapy, psychological aid, video analysis and Sport science support and nutritional advice, all delivered by qualified practitioners.
For more information on the Table Tennis Performance programme at Swansea university can be found HERE or email Matthew.porter@swansea.ac.uk