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Commonwealth Games silver medallist Jess Slyvester hopes her current form will be enough to secure a World Championship place, after leading The University of Nottingham to a fifth place finish at the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) Long Course Championships.
Jess won three gold medals during the competition in Sheffield, with team mate Katie Ambridge also making the podium with one silver and two bronze medals. Both swimmers were also part of the Women’s 400m Medley and 400m Freestyle relay teams that secured bronze and silver medals respectively.
Delighted with both her own and the team’s display, in a field featuring 30 major games medallists including Olympic Champion Rebecca Adlington, Jess explained that the meet was the ideal opportunity to showcase her form to the Great Britain selectors.
She said: “I was really pleased to win three gold’s at the championship, as it is something I have never achieved before. But it was also pleasing to win two relay medals with the team. The competition was tough; a lot of the swimmers will be at the World Championship trials in Manchester next month, but any opportunity to race your competition and try to note any strengths and weaknesses is great.
“The times I swam were the fastest I have ever raced mid season before tapering, but I know I still have to transfer that into the trials. I don't like to look too far forward but my aims for the Worlds would be to gain as much experience as possible leading into next year’s Olympic trials and hopefully the Olympics themselves.”
With wins in the Open 50m and 100m Freestyle races and a Games record on the way to gold in the 100m Butterfly, Jess now hopes to be selected in the 50 and 100m freestyle, the 50 and 100m butterfly and the 4x100m freestyle relay for Team GB. But as well as her own hopes, Jess believes that the future is bright for the rest of her university team mates.
She continued: “It's hard to comment on other people’s targets as everyone has different perspectives about University sport. The most important thing is to have a great setup in terms of support, structure and coaching which this team has. With this in place there is no reason why people can't achieve everything they want to.”
The results also highlight the success of the University’s sports bursary programme, from which both Jess and Katie benefit. While Katie receives funding as part of the Elite Squad, Jess is one of 16 full bursars who receive support as well as funding.
This support includes nutrition advice, cardiac screening and specialist strength and conditioning programmes, as well as free access to the University’s sport and physiotherapy facilities. A mentor is also on hand to offer advice and support to help the athlete to fulfil their academic and sporting potential.
To see the full results from the BUCS Long Course Swimming Championships, please visit
http://www.swimmingvolunteers.org/bucs/results/lc11/index2.htm — Ends —
Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham, described by The Sunday Times University Guide 2011 as ‘the embodiment of the modern international university’, has award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. It is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and the QS World University Rankings. It was named ‘Europe’s greenest university’ in the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking, a league table of the world’s most environmentally-friendly higher education institutions, which ranked Nottingham second in the world overall.
The University is committed to providing a truly international education for its 40,000 students, producing world-leading research and benefiting the communities around its campuses in the UK and Asia.
More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, with almost 60 per cent of all research defined as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. Research Fortnight analysis of RAE 2008 ranked the University 7th in the UK by research power.
The University’s vision is to be recognised around the world for its signature contributions, especially in global food security, energy & sustainability, and health.
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www.nottingham.ac.uk/news