Students celebrate international sporting success
Student athletes are gaining international honours across the sporting spectrum with the support of the Saints Sport performance programme.
Canoe Sprint
Sport scholar and Winning Students 100 scholar Kristina Armstrong (1st Year, Medicine), who is a World Junior Bronze medallist and double U23 European Championship gold medallist for Great Britain in Canoe Sprint, has recently earned selection to the GBR Senior Canoe Sprint Team as part of UK Paddle’s World Class Performance Programme for the 2025 season.
Rugby Union
Rugby scholars Oliver Finlayson Russell (1st Year, MA Management Hons) and Jamie Thomson (1st Year, BSc Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry) both featured for Scotland U20s in two friendlies against Wales U20s in December, with Russell making the final selection for the 2025 U20 Six Nations squad. Fellow rugby scholar Campbell Swanson (1st Year, MLitt Management) is part of the Switzerland senior squad for the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship 2025, featuring in games against Georgia and the Netherlands in February, and teammate Callum Fitzhenry (2nd Year, MA (Hons) History) represented Hong Kong China U20s in the World Rugby U20 Trophy last Summer.
In the women’s section of the Rugby Club, Annabel Sleigh (2nd Year, MA (Hons) Chinese Studies and International Relations) from HKU Sandy Bay RFC was selected to join the Hong Kong China Rugby Senior Age Grade Tour (U23) to Canberra, Australia.
Football (soccer)
Kyra Taylor (1st Year, MA (Hons) Psychology) made her debut for the Singapore Women’s National Football Team as an 18-year-old last summer before joining the University from the IMG Academy (Florida) for the 2024-25 academic year. A member of the Women’s performance football programme and part of the Singapore Lionesses squad, Taylor made a dramatic start to her international career, coming off the bench against Macau to score a breathtaking long-range goal.
Golf
St Andrews golf scholars Judd Sundelson (MSc Finance and Banking) and Judy Joo (1st Year, MA (Hons) Economics and International Relations) are currently leading the Men’s and Women’s 2024/25 R&A Student Tour Series Order of Merit going into the final, which will be played in St Andrews (31 March – 2 April).
Eighteen-year-old Joo kicked off the 2024/25 R&A Student Tour Series with a win in the opening qualifying event at the Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden (10-12 September) and secured her second STS event title with victory at La Sella Golf Club in Spain at the beginning of February.
In the final qualifying round at Troia Golf Club in Portugal last week (29 February – 2 March), it was fellow golf scholar and Winning Students 100 scholar Lucy Jamieson (MSc Chemistry) who came away victorious, winning her fourth STS event, and second at Troia, by five shots over teammate Judy Joo, leaving her in second place in the overall Order of Merit. In the men’s field, Judd Sundelson narrowly lost out to Oscar Bjorkqvist (Halmstad University, Sweden) after a three-hole play-off to finish second.
Going into the R&A Student Tour Series final, St Andrews occupies four of the top five places in the Women’s Order of Merit, with Judy Joo (1st) and Lucy Jamieson (2nd) leading 2024 Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open Champion Ellie Monk (2nd Year, BSc (Hons) Economics) in 4th place and Emilie Knai (1st Year, MA (Hons) Management) in 5th.
Supported by the University’s performance programme, athletes at St Andrews have access to top-class facilities, the highest level of technical and tactical coaching, in-house athlete support services, and through the recently launched Performance Curriculum enhanced support in sports medicine, performance lifestyle, sport psychology, nutrition, analytics, and physiology.
Deputy Director of Sport Ian Gaunt said: “It is really pleasing to see our top athletes representing the University on the international stage and performing at the highest levels, whilst balancing the academic schedule of a world-class education.
“It is testament to the advanced level of support we now provide to our performance athletes and scholars that enhances the unique St Andrews experience.”
ENDS
Category University news