Hopwood Hall sports students share Portuguese sunshine with professional athletes

Sports students from Hopwood Hall College at the Monte Gordo Sports Complex

Sports students from Hopwood Hall College travelled to Portugal to share a warm weather training camp with professional European athletes.

The students took the residential trip to the Portuguese sports resort of Monte Gordo to analyse the lifestyles of professional athletes and the impacts warm weather training has on their bodies compared to the students’ habitual climate of the cold and wet North West of England.

In a rare opportunity to train with athletes operating at the very highest levels of sport, the Sports students trained alongside current ‘fastest man in Europe’, Jimmy Vicaut and British Pentathlete, Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

When they weren’t training alongside Olympians, the students were working towards their BTEC Level Three qualifications by coaching their peers in new sports such as Beach Volleyball and American Football.

Nicole Littler, a Sport Science student at Hopwood Hall College, described her excitement about training abroad with professional athletes, she said: "The trip was absolutely amazing. Having the opportunity to train alongside these elite athletes was an incredible experience I never thought I would get, they were brilliant role models to learn from.

“We made so many new friends whilst we were out there too, so it’s been a great social experience as well as an educational one.

"I’m so grateful that we had this opportunity and I want to thank our tutors for all the work they have put into the trip."

Echoing his students’ sentiments, Sports Lecturer, Gareth Huish, said of his team’s trip: “The trip was fantastic, the student’s behaviour was absolutely exemplary at all times on the trip.

“We were all really proud of them, to see them mixing with other athletes and students from countries across Europe was a really rewarding experience for me as their tutor.

"The students didn't want to go home, so I suppose that tells you a lot about how the training camp went for them."