20 November 2007 By Graham Croker
Rower Elizabeth Kell was named Sydney University Female Blue of the Year and gymnast Prashanth Sellathurai was named Male Blue of the Year at the annual Blues Dinner held in the Great Hall on Saturday night.
Kell and Sellathurai were among 41 Blues awarded for sporting achievements during 2007, and 12 Golds, awarded for services to sport.
The awards were presented by University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gavin Brown, who along with former Chancellor, Justice Kim Santow, was a University Gold recipient.
Kell, a Sydney University Sport Scholarship holder and a Bachelor of Education (PDHPE) student, caused one of the biggest upsets at the 2006 World Rowing Championships at Eton, England, when she and Brooke Pratley edged out the reigning Olympic and World Champions, New Zealand’s Ever-Swindell sisters, to win the women’s double scull.
“We crossed the line and I knew we had a medal, I just wasn’t sure which one,” she said at the time. “Then we looked up at the score board and our jaws dropped”.
What made the victory so breathtaking and made Kell the toast of world rowing was that just months before Eton, she was suffering from a torn quadricep muscle and in the days leading up to the event a crippling viral infection. And the World Championships represented Kell’s first international race in over 24 months.
Kell said the support base at Sydney University Sport could prove instrumental in pushing her toward her eventual goals of an Olympic gold.
“Sydney University realises that although my education is highly important, at the moment, I will take sacrifices in my education in order to achieve my sporting dreams. Within that, they are 100 per cent behind me in both my education and sporting career,” she said.
Sellathurai, a health science student, won a silver medal in the men’s pommel horse at the 2006 World Gymnastic Championships held at Aarhus, Denmark.
The 21-year-old Sydney University Sports Scholarship holder, missed out on gold by just 0.275 points. Xiao Qin, of China, won the gold with 16.025 points for his routine, with Sasha Artemev of the US taking bronze.
Sellathurai, who also won silver at the Commonwealth Games earlier in 2006, became just the second Australian male to win a medal at the World Championships, following Philippe Rizzo’s second in the horizontal bars in Ghent in 2001. The two have taken men’s gymnastics in Australia to a new level.
“I was not really expecting a medal,” said Sellathurai, who trains at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. “Before the competition I was not sure about what chances I would have. I did my routine without chancing anything and I did not expect anything. Before the qualifications I was not even sure I could make it to the finals.”
Competing in his first Commonwealth Games, in Melbourne in March, Sellathurai won two silver medals – from the men’s team event and for his individual routine on the pommel horse. He was the highest qualifier for the individual final, but his score of 15.6 saw him finish second behind Englishman Louis Smith, who took gold with 15.775 points. Canada’s Grant Golding took bronze with 14.875 points.
In congratulating the Blues, the President of Sydney University Sport, Mr Bruce Ross, said the university is not just one of the great teaching and research universities – now ranked 31 in the world – it is also one of the great sporting institutions.
After backing the claim by recalling a long list sporting achievements by Sydney University athletes during 2007, many of them on the world stage, Mr Ross then used his Toast to the University to thank the institution’s leaders for supporting sport following the introduction of voluntary student unionism and the resulting loss of funding to Sydney University Sport.
“The introduction of voluntary student unionism has been disastrous for Australian universities,” he said. “The actions of the Government have decimated support, and not just for sporting bodies. It has caused enormous damage, particularly to regional universities, and some of that damage is irreparable.”
In presenting University Golds to Professor Brown and Justice Santow, the Executive Director of Sydney University Sport, Mr Greg Harris, said 2007 represented the greatest challenge to the future of sport at Sydney University in over 100 years.
“Through the passing of the VUS legislation, the Federal Government basically withdrew the authority of our university to charge a non-academic service fee to our students, thus ripping over $3,250,000 from the Sydney University Sport budget,” he said.
“The desire to preserve the all-round student experience at our university in black and white was, and is, one of opportunity cost, good corporate governance and fiscal capacity.”
Mr Harris said without the University’s support, the next generation of Blues would not experience what past generations have. “This university has put its hand up to support sport and recreation on campus,” he said. “Other Australian universities have the desire but not the capacity to provide that support and that is to society’s detriment in many ways.”
In acknowledging the support provided by Justice Santow, who is a Sydney University rowing Blue, and Professor Brown, Mr Harris announced that the University has agreed to provide capital to fund a number of new facilities, including a pavilion between No.1 and No.2 ovals. He also announced that it will be called the Gavin Brown Pavilion.
Sporting Blues for 2007 are:
Sport | First Name | Surname | Initials for pocket |
AFL (Women) | Shelley | Bates | SUANFC |
AFL (Women) | Amelia | Dever | SUANFC |
Archery | Donald | Chiou | SUAC |
Athletics | Werner | Botha | SUBC |
Basketball | Alicia | Poto | SUBC |
Basketball | Melissa | Smith | SUBC |
Boat | Andrew | Conolly | SUBC |
Boat | Mitchell | Estens | SUBC |
Boat | Cameron | Girdlestone | SUBC |
Cricket | Mark | Cameron | SUCC |
Cricket | Greg | Mail | SUCC |
Cricket | Lisa | Sthalekar | SUCC |
Cycling | Kaarle | McCulloch | SUCTC |
Diving | Alex | Croak | SUDC |
Football | Daniel | Lewinski | SUFC |
Football | Laurence | Weeks | SUFC |
Gymnastics | Pei-Ling | Kong | SUGC |
Gymnastics | Prashanth | Sellathurai | SUGC |
Hockey | Zoe | Michaleff | SUHC |
Hockey | Harriet | Moore | SUHC |
Hockey | Victor | Vadiveloo | SUHC |
Lawn Tennis | Bianca | Chidrawi | SULTC |
Netball | Susan | Pratley | SUNC |
Rowing | Kate | Beasley | SUWRC |
Rowing | Irma | Kajan | SUWRC |
Rowing | Elizabeth | Kell | SUWRC |
Rowing | Renee | Kirby | SUWRC |
Rowing | Chloe | O'Regan | SUWRC |
Rowing | Charlotte | Walters | SUWRC |
Skiing | Toby | Kane | SUSC |
Skiing | Aimee | Watson | SUSC |
Skiing | Gregory | Watts | SUSC |
Skiing | Emma | Wilson | SUSC |
Soccer | James | Alcorn | SUSFC |
Soccer | Lucy | McClymont | SUSFC |
Soccer | Edward | Noel | SUSFC |
Swimming | Matija | Jaukovic | SUSC |
Swimming | Kate | Johnson | SUSC |
Volleyball | Chris | Todd | SUVC |
Volleyball | Gabrielle | Woodhouse | SUVC |
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2007 Golds | | | |
| | | |
Sport | First Name | Surname | Initials for pocket |
AFL | Harvey | Gordon | SUANFC |
Basketball | Michael | Tan | SUBC |
Football | David | Mortimer | SUFC |
Handball | Dorothy | Potocka | SUHC |
Hockey | Brian | Gunner | SUHC |
Netball | Tania | Finikiotis | SUNC |
SU Sport | Ed | Binnie | SUS |
Water Polo | Larry | Cargill | SUWPC |
Water Polo | Yvette | Higgins | SUWPC |
Water Polo | Greg | Turner | SUWPC |