A gold medal and two silver medals to first year Physiotherapy student Thomas Beddome have headlined a record haul for James Cook University athletes at the recent UniSport Australia Nationals in Canberra.
Mr Beddome, 27, brought home the gold medal in the Men's Cycling Time Trial and added a silver in the Men's Road Race before capping his incredible week with a second silver medal as part of JCU's lawn bowls team.
His multi-sport heroics helped to produce JCU's best result at a division one nationals since 2001, with the university finishing with six medal, one gold, three silver (Men's Road Race, Women's Futsal, Mixed Lawn Bowls) and two bronze (Women's Beach Volleyball, Women's Rugby Sevens).
The Cairns student moved to Townsville this year for his studies, and he finished eight seconds clear of his nearest rival in a dominant display to win the time trial on day one before a strong finish in the road race on the final day of the competition saw him take silver in that event.
"I've been riding competitively since I was around 13 and have been racing at State and National Road Series level the past few years," he said.
"The time trial uses live timing and is a race against the clock, so I knew I was in the gold medal position but there were a couple more riders behind me still to come who I knew were quite strong. There was definitely excitement when the last rider finished and I was still in first but I wanted to hear it from the official to be sure.
"Having won the time trial a lot of other riders knew they would have to try and neutralise my strength in the hill section of the road race and as we went over the last climb and I couldn't really separate from the group.
"Being a lighter rider, I don't go as fast downhill as some of the bigger guys but I followed the right wheels and moved up through to the peloton so I was really happy to be able to get into second place."
Mr Beddome also praised the efforts of his bronze medal-winning lawn bowls teammates Anthony Reppel, Julien Sewell, Lukas Brownie, Riley Bacchiella and fellow dual medalist Lily Bradshaw, who added a second bronze with JCU's women's rugby sevens team.
"The opportunity came to try a different sport with a great group of people and while we were a bit upset to miss out on the gold medal match, everyone was really happy with our result," he said.
Amanda Baker rounded out JCU's group of multiple medal winners, pulling double duty all week to help the women's futsal and rugby sevens teams secure top three finishes.
JCU Student Association Sport & Recreation Manager Jason Conn said the team's results were outstanding and a fitting reward for their months of hard work on the training track in the lead-up to the competition.
"We had around 50 students competing across eight sports. So, we had women's rugby sevens, men's volleyball, men's cycling, mixed touch football, women's futsal, mixed lawn bowls, men's basketball, and women's pairs beach volleyball," he said.
"It's an amazing result to get six medals at the division one level, especially when you compare the size of JCU to some of the other universities, so we certainly are batting above our average.
"We are just stoked with the efforts of all of our athletes and it was great to see them turn out and all support each other at their respective events across the week in Canberra."
