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Dame Kelly Holmes Visits St Mary's

Double Olympic gold medal winner Dame Kelly Holmes visited St Mary’s University College, Twickenham this week. The visit – an end of year review session with twelve elite athletes as part of the education and mentoring initiative ‘On Camp with Kelly’, supported by Aviva – culminates a year’s worth of training, race preparation, competition, awards, mentoring, educational activities and international championships for the young athletes and their coaches.

The athletes, many of whom are undergraduate students at St Mary’s, had the opportunity to review their year, have one on one mentoring with Dame Kelly Holmes and take part in a training session at the University College sports facilities.

Dame Kelly Holmes said, “It is great to be able to get the athletes together for sessions like this. When they are together as a group there is a really positive energy in what can sometimes be quite an individual sport. Having review sessions and mentoring opportunities like this one at St Mary’s provides the athletes with a healthy and motivated environment, giving them a lift for the year ahead.”

The education and mentoring initiative ‘On Camp with Kelly’, supported by Aviva, was established in 2004 by Dame Kelly Holmes in order to give young athletes the opportunity to develop their athletic careers but also gain valuable life experiences such as independence and a sense of responsibility to also encourage their development as young members of society.

Charlotte Purdue, a St Mary’s History undergraduate and receiver of an 'On Camp with Kelly' Outstanding Achievement Award in 2009 in recognition of her silver medal in the 5000m at the European Athletics Junior Championships, said: “I have gained a lot from my experiences as part of ‘On Camp with Kelly’. This year has been fantastic, we were able to go to Berlin to experience a world championships, and also visit the Aviva GB Team holding camp which meant we got advice from the competitors as well as having discussions with the GB team physiotherapists and doctors.”

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