Mike Sweeney
Mike Sweeney

We are proud to announce the second winner of the termly Lionheart Award goes to Mike Sweeney, a third year Sports and Materials Science student and decathlete.

The 20-year old came to the University as a developing athlete and has worked hard to climb to second ranked U20 in the UK for Decathlon in 2009.

Due to his hard work he now finds himself largely in the senior competitions in a highly physical and competitive event - just recently he finished second in the U23 ranks of the indoor Heptathlon national championships and now hoping to receive his first call up for Great Britain.

Whilst his individual achievements have been impressive, this is not the primary reason for his receipt of this award for this term.
As elected track captain Mike has always been heavily involved in the running of the athletics club - one of the largest sports clubs on campus - and is extremely popular across all disciplines and social group.

However, due to the unforeseen absence of Head Coach Mike Bull last term, he stepped up his commitment to another level.
Alongside his own strict training regime and final year academic pressures, he has coached, organised sessions and planned events within the hectic athletics club schedule.

The hours of work he has put in aiding the club captain have been above and beyond any reasonable expectation of a purely voluntary position.

Without his efforts over the past year, the club would certainly have been a less dynamic and quite likely less successful sports club.

Mike will receive an honorary scholarship for the duration of a term including access to physiological testing, strength and conditioning programmes, nutrition and psychological support, physiotherapy support and lifestyle mentoring.

The next Lionheart Award winner will be chosen in the summer term, if you wish to apply or to find out more information please contact Scholarships Manager Luke Gunn on l.s.gunn@bham.ac.uk.