Commonwealth Games

Nine students represented New Zealand at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Our students came home with four bronze medals and a number of impressive performances.  

Sulu Fitzpatrick (Faculty of Arts) and Grace Nweke (Business School) were part of the bronze medal winning netball team. Sulu’s sister Theresa Fitzpatrick (Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences) also won a bronze in the women’s rugby sevens. Perhaps the most extraordinary performance came from fourth-year Faculty of Science student Imogen Ayris, who won bronze in the pole vault – even though she had a broken bone in her foot. Imogen, 21, surprised everyone including herself when she ended up in a moonboot after the Games. She’d described her foot as being ‘niggly’ before the event, but it was only when it was scanned later that a fracture was revealed. 

Other University students representing New Zealand at the Games were William Fu-Allen (Science) and Samuel Dick (Business School) in Artistic Gymnastics, Havana Hopman (Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences) in Rhythmic Gymnastics, Frazer Tavener (Faculty of Engineering) in Diving and Alice Zeimann (Faculty of Law) in Beach Volleyball.