Jonny Davies, third year Biochemistry student and University of Birmingham sport scholar, last week bought home 2 medals for the GB Athletics team at the World University Games in Taipei. With a Silver in the 5000m and a Bronze for 1500m, Davies is proving to be one of the ones to watch on the track, especially given the extremely competitive nature of the 5000m.
Photo by Mark Shearman
Jonny Davies, third year Biochemistry student and University of Birmingham sport scholar, last week bought home 2 medals for the GB Athletics team at the World University Games in Taipei. With a Silver in the 5000m and a Bronze for 1500m, Davies is proving to be one of the ones to watch on the track, especially given the extremely competitive nature of the 5000m.
Competing in 4 gruelling races over 6 days, in temperatures that exceeded 30 degrees and humidity that rarely dropped below 60%, Davies’ latest success at the World University Games really showcases his progression. Davies has previously proved his talent by becoming the first ever British male to claim the U23 European Cross-Country title in 2015, followed by starting his senior career in the European Senior Championships 5000m in 2016. He has won numerous medals at the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) track and cross-country events over the years, topping the list this year with a Gold in the 1500m. And if this latest achievement in Taipei is anything to go by, this is only the beginning for Davies.
However, every hero has an Achilles heel, and it was the collaborative team effort of Davies and the support team at the University acknowledging that where he was very successful in colder climate events, in the heat he tended to struggle. Prior to the World University Games in Taipei, the dedicated team of Performance Centre Sport Science and Coaching staff shaped a plan to work around the issues of acclimatisation. This ranged from discussing with experts such as Professor Myra Nimmo, Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of College of Life and Environmental Sciences and Chair of England Athletics; to putting Davies through his paces in an acclimatisation chamber to prepare him for the conditions; to executing a careful preparation and warm-up strategy. This immense amount of planning and nurturing led to what British Athletics termed Davies’s ‘confident mood…and all or nothing attitude’, driving him to victory.
The University of Birmingham scholarship scheme, of which Davies has been a member since he started at the University, is a holistic programme focusing not only on the offering of funding towards necessary training, equipment and competitions, but the overall wellbeing of the scholars. It includes strength and conditioning coaching, access to the new world-class performance gym, and nutritional, physiological and psychological support. In this case, the team clearly recognised an area of development and worked with Davies to improve on the winning margin that allowed him to succeed at this elite international championship. Davies said, about the support he received from the University:
‘I can’t really value enough how much support the team has given me, in the run up to these championships but also in my entire running career since I’ve been at Birmingham. In terms of these Games, as a team we knew that it was obviously going to be very different conditions in Chinese Taipei, and so we identified the temperatures and I was able to train in a heat chamber, where we worked out the optimum amount of time needed to acclimatise to the heat. I think that physically this gave me the advantage - but even more importantly, it meant that mentally I was ready to deal with that heat in Taiwan. It made a huge difference because there was so much focus and thought put into my plan that was tailored to my training.
‘What I really enjoyed about going out to these Championships more than any other is that I felt really prepared. I’ve done other big champs before but never felt like I was ready and in shape at this level - whereas this time I knew I’d done all my preparation right, which meant all I had to do on the day was focus on performing at my best.’
Davies’ silver medal at World University Games-level is an outstanding achievement and one that will put him in good stead for his next race, the Great North City Games in Newcastle on the 9th September. Davies will begin his final year of study at the University this month, and will be training under his new coach, four-time British steeplechase champion Luke Gunn, who has been Head Coach of the University Athletics and Cross-Country team since January 2015.
