The WCP is UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded initiative supporting the delivery of success at named milestone targets, namely outdoor track World and European Championships, and Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Paralympic gold medallist in the T38 100m Thomas Young (coach: Joe McDonnell) and Olympic bronze medallist pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw (Scott Simpson) retain their places on podium level funding, with Tokyo representatives Lydia Church (F12 shot, Jim Edwards) and Zak Skinner (T13 long jump and 100m, Aston Moore) retaining their place on Paralympic Podium Potential from last year.
They are joined by first-year Loughborough student Luke Nuttall (Alison Wyeth) who made his Paralympic debut in Tokyo over the T46 1500m and who has been rewarded with a place on the WCP at Paralympic Confirmation level.
After making her first Olympics in the high jump, Emily Borthwick is added at the Podium Potential level, where fellow scholars Jamie Webb (800m, Adrian Webb) and Niamh Emerson (Heptathlon, Ashley Bryant) are retained from last year. European U23 pole vault medallist Molly Caudery (Scott Simpson) joins the plan at Olympic Confirmation level.
The students took to social media to express their delight, with Emily Borthwick announcing: “It took 5 years and everything else to get to this point. Thank you British Athletics for your support, I can’t wait for next year”. Holly Bradshaw tweeted, “Very grateful to be supported by the WCP again for this upcoming year. Absolutely makes all the difference”.
With such a wealth of top-class athletes using Loughborough as their training base, a further 20 Loughborough-based athletes will be on the WCP for the next year including alumni Morgan Lake, Jonathan Broome-Edwards, Dan Greaves, Taylor Campbell, Jess Turner, Emily Diamond and Beth Dobbin.
The full announcements can be found online: