Loughborough students have won medals for Team GB in the hockey and badminton events at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.

Loughborough Students men’s hockey club players Andy Bull, Robert Farrington, Daniel Faulkner and Harry Gibson were part of the Great Britain team which won the silver medal after a 5-4 golden goal defeat at the hands of hosts Australia.

3-0 down in the first half, Team GB turned the match around to lead 4-3, with third year Sports Scholar Andy Bull on the score sheet after converting a penalty stroke in the 57th minute.

However with two minutes remaining the Australians equalised, and went on to claim victory with a golden goal in extra time.

Loughborough Students Men’s Hockey Club and Team GB goalkeeper Harry Gibson said:

“I’m so proud of all the lads. We didn’t play our best in the first half but we came out and gave it everything in the second half. We fought for everything and dominated the Australians.

“This performance gives us a lot of confidence and promise for this team for the future. This has been a massive learning curve and we have been soaking everything up.”

Loughborough Students women’s hockey players Giselle Ansley, Robyn Collins and Suzannah Petty, along with fellow Loughborough student Josie Inverdale, picked up the bronze medal after a 2-1 victory over the United States.

The GB women had previously beaten the American team 5-0 in the group games.  But the bronze medal match was a much closer affair with a hard fought victory secured through a golden goal by Hannah Martin in extra time.

Since winning the bronze medal there has been further celebration for Sport Scholar Giselle Ansley, who has been called up to the senior England squad for the first time for the Investec Challenge taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, next month.

In badminton first year Loughborough University student Aaron Cheng won a bronze medal in the men’s doubles event with playing partner Tom Wolfenden.

Aaron and Tom were defeated by China in the semi-finals, but bounced back in the bronze medal match to defeat the Chinese Taipei pair, producing a stunning performance to win 21-19 17-21 21-17.

Speaking of his success Aaron Cheng said:

“This was not a game we had expected to win as the Asian countries tend to dominate the badminton scene. Therefore, it was a great confidence boost that we proved that we could compete with them.”

The Australian Youth Olympic Festival saw approximately 1,700 athletes aged from 12 to 20 from 30 nations competing across 17 Olympic sports in many of the venues used to host the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Team GB competed in 11 Olympic sports winning 66 medals, comprising 19 gold, 23 silver, 24 bronze medals.

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