Rebecca Sindell from the University of Birmingham Sport (UBSport) Lifesaving Club headed up to Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield on Sunday, November 28 to compete in the 2010 National Lifesaving Championships finals and picked up gold and bronze medals.
The first year PHD Civil Engineering student took part in four tough events for the Ladies Open – the Aquatic Initiative test, Life Support Initiative test, Line Throw and Swim and Tow.
Considering this was Rebecca’s first time at the Finals, which she reached by getting through the Warwickshire branch and West Midlands regional rounds, she put in a great performance, placing fifth in both the Aquatic Initiative and Life Support tests, then went on to place third in the Line Throw with 15:94s and again in the Swim and Tow with 1:37:83.
Rebecca, who is also the UBSport Lifesaving Club Captain, took the overall bronze for the Ladies Open, missing out on silver by just one point.
When speaking of her achievement the 24-year old said, ‘I really didn’t know what to expect from the competition as it was my first time competing but I couldn’t have asked for a better result, I’m definitely hoping to come back next year.’
To top off the individual result Rebecca was also part of the Midlands team that took gold in the Regional Simulated Emergency Response Competition (SERC).
The UBSport Lifesaving Clubs assistant training officer Luke Peel said,’ "Both the Club and I are very proud to see one of our members get all the way through to the National Finals, it takes a huge amount of effort and commitment to get through both rounds, and to come away with two medals.
Luke, who competed at the Rescue 2010 Lifesaving World Championships in October added, ‘Competitive lifesaving has many skill building factors, most of the time we work in teams, but these achievements show that the individual skills of our members can be of a high standard. We will be using this success to encourage more of our members to represent the University in competitions that are not just run through other Universities."