Triple joy for east London sports scholars

Three outstanding University of East London sports scholars, Adam Gemili, Bianca Williams and Szandra Szogedi, have been selected to compete in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Olympic semi-finalist Adam Gemili has had a great 2014, so far, winning gold at BUCS (British Universities & College Sports), picking up the individual achievement of the year award at UEL’s sports awards and now being selected to compete in the 100m in Glasgow.

Gemili, a second year sport and exercise science student, burst on to the scene following his record time of 10.05 seconds in the 100m final at the 2012 World Junior Championships, where he secured a gold medal. He recorded a time of 10.06 seconds in the London 2012 Games 100m semi-final, narrowly missing out on a place in the Olympic final.

First-year student Williams, who is also studying sport and exercise science, is competing in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay at the Commonwealth Games.

She won a silver medal representing Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the women’s 4x200m in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Relay Championships.

In the England Athletics under-23 championships and European trials, Williams won a 100m bronze and 200m silver and in the British Athletics European indoor trials and UK Championships she placed fourth in the 200m.

Third-year journalism student Szogedi, 26, will be competing for Ghana in the -57kg category in judo.

Szogedi, from Hungary, took up judo aged 11 and came to London in 2007. She is a BUCS gold medallist, gained bronze in the Senior Continental Championships, fifth in the Grand Prix and ninth at the University World Games.

Matt Tansley, UEL’s head of high performance, said: “These three UEL sports scholars have put in an incredible amount of work to ensure their place in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. We wish them best of luck and will be loudly and proudly cheering them on.”