From netball, to swimming, cycling and even lawn bowls, Sunshine Coast athletes will return from the Commonwealth Games with an impressive medal haul.
A host of the region’s sports talents took part in the 12-day event at Birmingham, England, collecting 21 medals.
The University of the Sunshine Coast is celebrating after its affiliated athletes snared 15 of the medals. See full UniSC results.
Several other athletes with ties to the Sunshine Coast also fared well.
Cyclist Kristina Clonan claimed gold in the 500m time trial, Para swimmer Katja Dedekind won the women’s 50m freestyle S13 and superstar swimmer Kaylee McKeown won the women’s 200m backstroke and the women’s 100m backstroke, along with two other placings.
UniSC’s Games assault started with outstanding rides by Sophie Edwards, Maeve Plouffe and Chloe Moran in the women’s 4000m cycling team pursuit, twice setting a Games record.
Their campaign ended in fitting fashion when Cara Koenan and Stephanie Wood helped Australia beat Jamaica for gold in the netball.
UniSC Vice Chancellor and President Professor Helen Bartlett said the university community was proud of their athletes’ performances.
“Every competing athlete from the UniSC community has made us enormously proud and we look forward to welcoming them home,” she said.
“As a university that supports students to compete at the highest level while also completing studies, I want to thank their coaches, teachers, families and supporters.
“This is the network and expertise that supports our athletes to succeed and will continue to be vital as we prepare for future events such as the 2032 Olympic Games in Queensland.”
High Performance Student Program Coordinator Tania Stevenson said there were some outstanding results.
“I think all of our athletes did extremely well,” she said.
“There were challenges, triumphs, moments of heartbreak and stories of redemption. It’s what we love so much about sport,” she said.
“Our Spartans swim team brought home eight medals and the squad achieved finals representation in nearly all events but I thought it was also significant our athletes shone outside the pool.
“To pick a few moments, Hannah Dodd played out of her skin in the 3-on-3 basketball, going undefeated until the gold medal match.
“It was Hannah’s first major international medal and she certainly deserves it after all the hard work and dedication she applies.
“The ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast women’s team are always impressive in the cycling events and their Games record and then another individual silver for Maeve Plouffe didn’t surprise me at all.
“Another to highlight was Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) student Katelyn Inch, who represented New Zealand in the ladies’ lawn bowl pairs and earnt bronze after some ups and downs in qualifying.”
UniSC athletes also claimed outstanding results at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics a year ago, when more than 20 UniSC athletes competed.
Ms Stevenson said one of the difficulties faced in Birmingham was the limited number of events for Para swimmers, meaning several had to compete in unfamiliar events and categories.
“For example, Braedan Jason and Jenna Jones are S12 vision impaired swimmers and had to compete in an S13 event, while Blake Cochrane is an SB7 breaststroker, but competed in SB8,” she said.
“Ben Hance is another – his world record and Tokyo Paralympic Gold medal are in backstroke but he didn’t have the option of competing in his backstroke classification, so he swam the 200m freestyle instead.
“The fact these swimmers won medals outside of their comfort zone is simply fantastic.
“Another deserving of kudos was Jacob Templeton, who has missed a number of previous national teams by hundredths of a second, snatching the bronze in the 50m freestyle and swimming a personal best.”
