SERC Alumni Hope to Shine as Spotlight Turns to Paralympics

The Summer Olympic Games are over and we saw valiant efforts from SERC alumni Rhys McCleneghan and Kevin Seaward. Rhys competed in the final of the Men's Pommel Horse, finishing 7th overall, while Kevin finished 58th in the Men’s Marathon final with a time of 2:21:45.

Attention now turns to the Paralympic Games, and SERC are proud to have more alumni competing at Tokyo 2020, Bethany Firth, and Barry McClements.

Bethany studied on the Elite Athlete Programme - Pearson BTEC Level 3 90-Credit Diploma in Sport at SERC. She is a four-time Paralympic gold medallist, she has won gold in her specialist event, the 100 metres backstroke for both Ireland (2012 Summer Paralympics) and Great Britain (2016 Summer Paralympics). Bethany will be part of the Paralympics GB Swim Team this year.

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.

Lynda Robinson, SERC Deputy Head of School, Applied Science, Sport and Access to Education, said “I am thrilled that former SERC students have competed or are preparing to compete at the Tokyo 2020 games 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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