Team Bath swimmer Anna Hopkin was named the British Universities & College Sport’s Sportswoman of the Year last Thursday: the day after she graduated from the Univiersity of Bath.
The organization, known as BUCS, is the British equivalent of the NCAA. Hopkin was shortlisted alongside Edinburgh’s Eilidh Gibson (canoe slalom) and Nottingham’s Maria Tsaptsinos (table tennis).
Hopkin, coached by Mark Skimming, won 4 medals, including 1 gold, at the BUCS National Championships and won a Commonwealth Games bronze medal as part of the UK’s 400 free relay.
Voted by her peers as the University’s Sports Personality of the Year at the 2018 Blues Awards, Hopkin has also been selected to represent Great Britain at next month’s European Championships in Glasgow and, during a recent warm-up event in Italy, the Sette Colli Trophy, met The Pope at The Vatican.
The recipient of a Thompson Education Trust Scholarship, Hopkin graduated with a 2.1 GPA in Sports & Exercise Science on Wednesday. After the European Championships, she will fly to the United States to begin work on a Masters in Kinesiology at the University of Arkansas.
Duncan Scott, who won 6 swimming medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, was one of 3 nominees for Sportsman of the Year, but that honor went to Jonathan Davies – a middle distance runner. He was Great Britain’s only World University Games double medalist in Taipei when he took bronze in the 1500m and silver in the 5000m, and earned 7 BUCS medals.