Month: July 2014

British Wimbledon Champion 2014

No you haven’t read the title wrong, British hopes at Wimbledon did not crash out with Andy Murray. In fact British talent was very much in evidence in the Wheelchair Tennis as Jordanne Whiley become the first British woman to lift the wheelchair tennis trophy at Wimbledon as she secured the doubles title with her Japanese partner Yui Kamiji. The pairing beat the defending champions 2-6, 6-2, 7-5, taking the title away from the Netherlands for the first time in the Championships 6 year history.

Whiley and Kamiji in practice on Saturday

Also in action over the weekend were the partnership of GB’s Gordon Reid and Tom Egberink who despite a storming first set lost out to the number one seeds Houdet and Kunieda in the semi finals (1-6, 6-4, 6-2). After a strong start Reid and Egberink suffered a number of errors in their game in the second set along with a puncture, they put up a strong performance to the very end with a number of thrilling long rallies seen throughout the match. Houdet and Kunieda then went on to win the finals in straight sets.

Emergency puncture repair for Gordon Reid

Testing with GB Para-Rowing

Last week a group of 2nd Year Bio-engineering students had the opportunity to take their projects down to the National Sports Centre in Bisham (near Marlow) to demonstrate them to World Championship winning GB Para-Rowers, Pam Relph and James Fox. The trip also coincided with a visit from the Minister for Sport, Helen Grant, who was on site to open the new accommodation facilities at Bisham.

Demonstrating prototypes with Para-Rowers Pam Relph and James Fox

The projects were well received by the athletes, and their were constructive suggestions for improvements in their next design iteration.

We look forward to running more projects in the future with the GB Para-Rowing team and developing the current projects further in preparation for the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016.