Issue 1247 - The Courier

Sport
thecourieronline.co.uk/sport
Th eCourier
Tuesday 6 March 2012
35
Sport Editors: Colin Henrys, Harry Slavin
and Rory Brigstock-Barron
Online Sport Editors: Grace Harvey and Charlie Scott
courier.sport@ncl.ac.uk
For he’s a Jolly good swimmer
Elite Athlete and Marine Biology student bidding for place at London Olympics
“I just want to be able to
get to the end of my
career and look back with
no regrets. I want to be
able to say that I gave it
everything...”
Newcastle student Will Jolly celebrates more success in the pool, something he hopes to be able to replicate at the swimming trials for the London 2012 Olympics later this week Photography: Newcastle University Swim Club
By Linda Guma
Ambitious is one word that encapsulates
Will Jolly, a final-year Marine
Biology student and athlete at Newcastle
University. The 20-year-old
from Lincolnshire is on the pursuit of
becoming the next swimming champion
to bring glory to Newcastle since
1988 when Kevin Boyd made it to the
finals in the Seoul Olympics. He is
also striving to achieve his dream of
becoming a shark scientist.
“Anything’s possible if you put your
mind to it. And if you have a dream,
go for it. Don’t let anything stand in
your way and hold you back. And
even if you don’t achieve what you set
out to do, as long as you’ve given it
everything you can and you can look
back with no regrets, then no one
could ever fault you.”
Will Jolly expressed these inspirational
words during an interview
at 9.00am in the morning last week.
That was just after he swam 6,000 metres
at 5.30am that morning.
Will has been swimming competitively
since he was nine years old and
trying to break into Internationals for
the past three years. At the age of 18
he played in his first national games,
right before coming to Newcastle
University. Then, he was the first
swimmer at Newcastle to win gold
in the 1,500 metre freestyle race at
the British Universities and Colleges
Sport (BUCS) Long Course Championships
in Sheffield two years ago.
This week, Will is going to be participating
in the trials that will determine
whether he will have the opportunity
to represent Britain in the 1,500 metre
freestyle races in the upcoming London
games. He will be facing a fierce
competition, as those who will qualify
for the final round can be any eight of
the trial’s thirty participants, of whom
some have previously won bronze and
silver medals and several have participated
in multiple international competitions.
Only the fastest two of these
finalists will go on to compete in the
Olympics themselves.
The up-and-coming marine scientist
and swimming star has to juggle
his time between his studies and his
sport. He spends 20 hours a week in
the pool, training at Newcastle City
pool Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and
Friday between 5.30am and 7.30am,
and then again between 4.30pm to
6.30pm Monday to Friday. Ahtough
that doesn’t mean he gets the weekends
off. On Saturdays he heads over
to Sunderland to train in the 50m
pool from 8.00am to 10.00am.
During a light set of skills and drills
he’ll swim “only” between 4,000 and
5,000 metres, whereas in a heavy set,
when he’s really going for it, he’ll do a
good 6,000 to 7,000 metres in a single
session. That’s about 250 lengths per
session or 500 lengths per day.
On top of that, Will has two weekly
weight sessions, one of which he
takes place at the Sports Centre Tuesday
or Wednesday evening, and the
other one Saturday morning over at
Gateshead with a coach. Not to mention
that that he’s got to fit in eating,
catching up on sleep, travelling to and
from the pool, and strength work to
prevent shoulder injury.
As if his schedule isn’t already inundated,
Will has to fit twenty lab and
library hours into his already jampacked
schedule: “Last year was particularly
hard work; they really put us
under the cosh. We had days when
we had 9.00am-10.00am lecture,
10.00am-1.00pm lab, 1.00pm-2.00pm
lecture, 2.00pm-5.00pm lab, 5.00pm
till 6.00pm lecture. Those were hard
days, especially if you’ve been up till
5.00am!”
He usually does his assignments in
the evening and on particularly heavy
days he works from 8.00pm until midnight,
leaving only five hours of sleep
before he’s got to get up for another
arduous training session. Now in the
third and final year of his degree, Will
is busy writing his dissertation, which
involves long hours in the lab, collecting
and transcribing data.
For Will, leisure time is a limited
resource which he doesn’t take for
granted: “Saturday night is the one
time in the week where I can relax a
bit and socialise. Any weekends when
I’m not competing, I catch up with my
mates and watch a film or some TV,
mainly sports. These are the things
that I may not have time for during
the week. Real luxuries, you know.”
“Anything’s possible if you put your mind to it.
And if you have a dream, go for it. Don’t let
anything stand in your way and hold you back.”
How does he do it? “I’m just trying
to fulfil my potential and see how far
I can go within my sport, as well as
combining it with my marine biology
degree, which takes up a lot of
time as well. Time management has
been crucial these last two-and-a-half
years” he says. “I just want to be able
to get to the end of my career and look
back with no regrets. I want to be able
to say that I gave it everything I could
have and it could have been no more,
even if I don’t end up making it to internationals.
I work as hard as I can,
because I don’t want be in the position
where I think, ‘What could I have
done more? Could I have done more?’
So that’s what keeps me going.”
After completing his Undergraduate
degree, he intends to spend the next
four pursuing both a Masters and a
PhD, whilst keeping up his swimming
and trying to qualify for the Rio
games. After 2016, he wants to retire
from swimming and fulfil his other
big dream in life, that of becoming a
shark scientist out in the tropics.
He also wants to stay in Newcastle
to continue his studies: “I’m settled
here. Newcastle is vibrant and I’ve
had many good times here. Moreover,
Newcastle University has an excellent
Marine Biology department and
a great athletic training programme.
The sports programme has been brilliant
and the support has helped me a
huge amount.”
Fraser Kennedy, Newcastle University’s
Performance Sport Manager,
says: “My role is to put in place all the
mechanisms necessary for supporting
our best athletes so that they can be
the best they can be. We provide them
with sports medicine support, funding,
psychology, nutrition, sports vision,
coaching in time management,
and strengthening and conditioning.
Of course, no one can do the training,
academic studies, and time management
for them, but we’re here to support
them.”