Cheering on four SERC Alumni at the Olympics

The Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games kicked off on the 23rd of July 2021 in Tokyo and we are ready to cheer on all our SERC alumni hopefuls.  Barry McClements and Kevin Seaward are competing for Gold in their respective areas of expertise, along with Rhys McClenaghan and Bethany Firth. 

Barry studied the Level 3 National Extended Diploma in Sport at SERC Bangor campus. He has competed internationally for Northern Ireland in swimming and is a Commonwealth Game & European finalist. Barry has been confirmed to be on the Irish Paralympic swim team. He has been noted as one of the strongest swimmers in Ireland and consistently excellent since he joined the Para Swimming squad after the Summer 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. 

Kevin is a former SERC Bangor student who studied Sport at higher education levels 4 and 5. He was part of the Ireland marathon team at the 2016 Summer Olympics, achieving 64th place with a time of 2:20:06, against 154 other athletes from 78 nations. He holds a personal best in the event with a 2:10:09 that he ran at the 2020 Seville Marathon. In the 2018 Commonwealth games, he secured fourth place in the Marathon and is competing in the marathon event for Ireland this year.  

Former SERC student Rhys McClenaghan competing with the Ireland gymnastics team,  has been given a score of 15.266 which should be enough to secure a final spot in the men's pommel horse event. Swimmer Bethany Firth, a previous gold medallist, will represent Great Britain in the paralympics. 

Lynda Robinson, SERC Deputy Head of School, Applied Science, Sport and Access to Education, said “I am thrilled that a group of former SERC students will be competing at the event this year, they were fantastic students and their progress to the Olympics shows their dedication and drive to succeed. We all wish them the best of luck!”.

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