the Director of Sport Stephen Baddeley
It’s not often you get the opportunity to step inside facilities used by elite Olympic athletes, but on a dark drizzly evening RCS got the chance!
Director of Sport and host for the evening was Stephen Baddeley, England’s only Commonwealth Games men’s singles gold medallist in Badminton.
The evening started in the Sports Village with a tour of the extensive gymnasium, spread over 3 areas, and fully equipped to work every inch of the body. The gym is surrounded by places to meet and eat. The terraced entrance had a bustling atmosphere full of children, parents, students, staff, and coaches. Great to see as we come out of stringent COVID-19 protocol.
We moved through to state-of-the-art indoor training areas which include a gymnastics area, field and track activity areas for pole vault, shotput, discuss and hammer throwing as well as a carpeted indoor 100m hurdles track.
Two areas of particular interest were the modern pentathlon room and the small but practical wheelchair fencing space which is due to be expanded.
The last leg of the tour included viewing the Olympic size swimming pool. From there we moved onto the tennis courts and watched as university and community sessions were in full swing (pun intended) using hard, grass and even outdoor clay courts.
Finally, we had Q&A session with university undergraduate and Commonwealth Games hopeful Caitlin Lockhead, a talented and dedicated gymnast who specialises in rhythmic, floor and beam.
On behalf of the RCS, I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Stephen and Caitlin for their time and allowing us to tap into their expertise! We wish Caitlin the very best success in qualifying for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham next year.
Written by Harry Watts RCS Bath and District Member (2nd Year Geography BSc Student)