Sporting hopefuls at Coleg Gwent are gearing up for the Welsh Colleges National Championships this week.
Seventeen-year-old Hannah Winmill from Abertillery is one of over a hundred students that will represent the College at events in Cardiff and Swansea on 7-10 November. Having taken part last year, she’s keen to improve on her performance:
“This year I’m on the hockey team – we took fourth place last year but we’ve been training hard since then so we’re hoping to improve on last year’s result. I’m also competing in the trampolining competition for the second year and because I know what to expect this year, I feel more confident and am hoping to improve my ranking.
“It’s going to be a great competition and I’m looking forward to supporting the other teams in their sports.”
Selection and training for the competitions is in full swing, with teams and individuals competing for a place at the national Championships in Bath in April 2012 where they will represent the Welsh squad.
Crosskeys Campus is entering male and female 5-a-side football, basketball, tennis, badminton, table tennis, cross-country, tennis, swimming, male volleyball, golf, female hockey and netball. They will also compete in trampolining in February, hosted by Crosskeys Campus.
As well as students from the 17 other Further Education colleges across Wales, Crosskeys students will also be competing against students from Coleg Gwent’s Usk Campus who are entering swimming, cross-country, girls’ football, boys’ football, boys’ rugby and netball.
This is the first time in a number of years that the majority of events are being held in a period of a few days. Crosskeys Campus Sport lecturer Mererid Dark welcomes the timing of the event: “Having the competitions over a short time period, as opposed to spread over a number of months as in previous years, creates an opportunity to enter more events and gives more students an opportunity to participate.
“We have students entering competitions from more subject areas than ever before and this adds to the quality of the team that will be competing and representing Crosskeys Campus and Coleg Gwent”.
