Adam Colgan of Lisburn City Swimming Club will become the first recipient of a new ‘National Centre (Ulster) Performance Scholarship’ offering, commencing from September 2023 in a new partnership scheme between Ulster University Sport, Swim Ireland and Swim Ulster.
The new Performance scholarship scheme provides a specific route into fulltime training membership with National Centre (Ulster), holistically facilitating the most exciting swimming talents in Ulster to train and study post-secondary school in Northern Ireland’s only Performance swimming Centre whilst studying with one of the island’s leading universities.
National Centre (Ulster) is funded and supported by both Sport Northern Ireland and Sport Ireland through an exciting and dynamic collaboration between Swim Ireland and Swim Ulster. Led by Head Coach Kevin Anderson, who relocated from Canada in 2022 to run the Centre, the staff are bolstered by a range of Assistant Coaches who would be immediately apparent names in the world of Ulster swimming – Andrew Bree, Aaron Rickhuss, Curtis Coulter, Jordan Sloan and David Thompson. Sports Science services for athletes in the Centre are provided via the Sport Northern Ireland Sport Institute at both Bangor Aurora (the Centre’s home) and the Institute’s Jordanstown base.
Head Coach Kevin Anderson stated, “All of the Centre’s coaching staff are delighted that Adam has chosen to accept the Ulster University Performance scholarship and continue his training at National Centre (Ulster) once he completes his secondary school education. Coach Stan Sheppard of Lisburn City SC is to be highly commended on his role in developing Adam, and this young and exciting athlete has a great deal of potential in the sport; this is primarily due to years of excellent coaching from Stan through to this point. We are confident that Adam will evolve into a leading senior swimmer for both Northern Ireland and Ireland and we look forward to helping him achieve his ambitions and aspirations whilst supporting his studies at Ulster University”.
Dr Nigel Dobson, Head of Sports Services at Ulster University commented “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Swim Ulster and Swim Ireland to support the next generation of swimming stars from the National Centre (Ulster) through our Dual Career Programme. The Scholarship provides support towards academic fees, in conjunction with flexible study options, academic mentoring and wrap around support services. This completes the Performance package offered through the National Centre. At UU, we strive to deliver transformational student experiences and we hope through this support, to do just that for Adam Colgan. We are looking forward to welcoming Adam to UU and helping him on his journey to future sporting and academic success.”
For athletes interested in training via one of Swim Ireland’s National Centres (Ulster, Dublin or Limerick), information and a point of enquiry can be found here.
