10 Stirling swimmers set for World Championships medal bid
In a milestone moment for the programme, it represents the largest number of Stirling swimmers to be selected for a World Championships – surpassing the eight who competed at Fukuoka 2023.
The 28-strong Aquatics GB team for Singapore includes Stirling's Duncan Scott OBE, Angharad Evans, Keanna Macinnes, Katie Shanahan, Holly McGill, Freya Anderson, Lucy Hope and Jack McMillan.
Paige van der Westhuizen will swim for Zimbabwe and Arvin Shaun Singh Chahal for Malaysia.
Ben Higson and Brad Hay will support the British team at the Championships, alongside ex-Stirling coach Steve Tigg, now Aquatics GB Head Coach.
David Bond, Head of Performance Sport at the University of Stirling, said: 'As the University's high-performance swim programme has grown and developed, we have witnessed more and more athletes achieve selection for the Olympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
'To have a record number of Stirling swimmers compete at the World Championships is a landmark moment for the programme, which continues to go from strength to strength under the leadership of Ben, Brad and the wider coaching and support team.
'We wish all the swimmers the best of luck as they head off to Singapore – and our university community will be cheering them on as they bid to medal on the international stage.'
Confirmed events of University of Stirling athletes at the World Aquatics Championships 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Trump creates task force to prepare for 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles
President Donald Trump on Tuesday established a task force on the 2028 Olympic Games being held in Los Angeles that he said would ensure the event is "safe, seamless and historically successful.' The 2028 Games will be the first Olympics to be hosted by the U.S. since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. 'The L.A. Olympics is shaping up to be a wonderful moment for America. It's going to be incredible. It's so exciting,' Trump said as he signed an executive order at the White House establishing the task force. The executive order calls for the task force to coordinate security and planning for the Games, streamline visa processing and credentialing for the athletes, coaches, media and other visitors coming to the U.S. Trump will serve as chair of the task force, with Vice President JD Vance as vice chair. Other members include a number of Cabinet secretaries and administration officials. At the event, Trump praised Gene Sykes, chair of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee board of directors, for the USOPC's move to effectively bar transgender women from competing in women's sports. 'The United States will not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics,' Trump said. He questioned why he didn't hear applause from the room when he praised Sykes for it, and then received some claps from some people in the room. Trump 'considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, calling sports one of the president's 'greatest passions.' LA28 president and chair Casey Wasserman said the task force "marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028.' Along with the 2028 Summer Games, Trump has said that the 2026 FIFA World Cup being hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico is among the events he's most looking forward to in his second term. In preparation for next year's competition, the governments of all three countries on Tuesday said they had held the first meeting of a trilateral coordinating council of government officials, industry leaders and security professionals discussing a variety of issues including preparedness for any security threats ahead of the World Cup. ___ Kinnard can be reached at ___
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Chuck Mangione obituary
While the arrival of rock'n'roll in the 1950s helped deflate the popularity that jazz music had once enjoyed, there would be artists who found a way to bring it back into the mainstream. One of them was Chuck Mangione, who has died aged 84. Brought up listening to jazz greats such as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, he helped to create what become known as 'smooth jazz', a kind of easy-listening popular music that one might find oneself listening to in lifts or airport lounges, inflected with jazzy phrasing and deploying jazz instruments. It was Mangione's flugelhorn that played the haunting theme of Feels So Good, his biggest hit, which reached No 4 on the US chart in 1978, but the track also featured electric and wah-wah guitars, a funky bassline and a danceable drum-beat. The track's parent album (featuring an extended version of Feels So Good) soared to No 2 on its respective chart. Mangione attributed its success to the fact that the airwaves had been saturated with the Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. He said: 'Radio programmers couldn't figure out what to put on instead and when somebody edited Feels So Good from nine minutes down to three, they instantly started playing it as an alternative to what were the current top songs.' His music's broad, if unchallenging, appeal also made it suitable for public occasions. The gently-lilting beat and mix of brass and woodwinds in Chase the Clouds Away featured at the 1976 summer Olympics in Montreal, while for the 1980 winter games in Lake Placid, New York, the ABC Sports TV network adopted his composition Give It All You Got. He won the first of his two Grammys – he received 13 Grammy nominations during his career – for Bellavia, a slow and moody piece, which drew its title from his mother's maiden name. He collected the second in 1979, for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, for his soundtrack to the film The Children of Sanchez, which starred Anthony Quinn. Born in Rochester, New York, Chuck (Charles) was the son of Nancy (nee Bellavia), who worked for a home appliances manufacturer, and Frank Mangione, who worked for the Eastman Kodak Company. Later his parents opened a family grocery store, Mangione's Market. Both were enthusiastic jazz fans, and they signed Chuck up for music lessons at the age of eight. He began learning the piano, but after seeing Michael Curtiz's film Young Man With a Horn (in which Kirk Douglas played a character based on cornet player Bix Beiderbecke) he switched to trumpet. His older brother, Gaspare (nicknamed Gap), was learning the piano and the brothers would practise together at home. Both boys would often be taken by their father to the Ridge Crest Inn in the Rochester suburb of Irondequoit. It was a well-known jazz venue where Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis had all played. Mangione told Jazz Times magazine how their father would introduce the brothers to artists such as Dizzy Gillespie and they'd be invited to sit in with the band. He then explained how 'my dad would invite everyone to our house for spaghetti and home-made wine … This week it would be Dizzy, the next week Carmen McRae, then Sarah Vaughan, Art Blakey, Kai Winding.' By the time Chuck enrolled in Rochester's Eastman School of Music in 1958, where he studied the trumpet and flugelhorn, he and Gap had already been playing in their own high school quintet, the Jazz Brothers. Before Chuck graduated with a bachelor's degree in music in 1963, the Jazz Brothers had already recorded three albums for the renowned Riverside jazz label. In 1965, he did stints with the big bands of Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson, before being recruited for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. He recalled how 'Art was looking around for a horn player and he called Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy said, 'Do you remember that kid from Rochester, NY?' and he recommended me to play with him.' Thus Mangione filled the trumpeter's slot previously occupied by such illustrious players as Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan. By the end of the 60s, Mangione had returned to the Eastman School as director of its jazz ensemble. He had also formed a quartet that featured the saxophonist and flautist Gerry Niewood, which enjoyed success throughout the 70s. In 1970 he made a breakthrough as a solo artist when he organised a concert of his own compositions, that mixed jazz, classical and pop styles, accompanied by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. A recording of the event was privately released, entitled Friends and Love … A Chuck Mangione Concert. This came to the attention of Mercury Records, who signed Mangione and released the album, which earned a Grammy nomination in 1971. A single from the album, Hill Where the Lord Hides, reached No 76 on the Billboard chart. After his album Land of Make Believe (1973) picked up a lot of airplay on alternative-rock radio stations, largely thanks to its exotically tropical-sounding title track with vocals by Esther Sattersfield, he moved from Mercury to A&M records, which would release his most successsful albums. Outside music, Mangione made regular TV appearances. He appeared in the detective show Magnum, PI, and the children's series Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show. A fictional version of himself had a recurring role in Fox TV's animated series King of the Hill – which featured numerous high-profile guests including Brad Pitt, Tom Petty and Meryl Streep – as a promoter of Mega-Lo Mart stores, usually wearing the white and red jacket from the sleeve of his Feels So Good album. He recalled: 'My character would do things like play Taps and switch right into Feels So Good. I figured that since they were playing my music and to such a large audience, why not?' He also wrote the genial instrumental Peggy Hill for a Valentine's Day episode. His wife, Rosie (Rosemarie, nee Accardi), died in 2015. He is survived by two daughters, Diana and Nancy, three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, a sister, Josephine, and Gap. Chuck (Charles Frank) Mangione, musician and composer, born 29 November 1940; died 22 July 2025
Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Benjamin Sesko's Man Utd or Newcastle call shouldn't boil down to manager 'reservations'
An ex-Premier League chairman has urged Benjamin Sesko to sign for Newcastle United over Ruben Amorim's Manchester United, despite having reservations over Magpies boss Eddie Howe in the past Simon Jordan has told Benjamin Sesko to head to St James' Park over Old Trafford, stating the RB Leipzig striker will have "less scrutiny" playing under Eddie Howe than Ruben Amorim. The former Crystal Palace chairman admits he had "reservations in the past" over the Newcastle manager, but he now believes the Carabao Cup winners are the right team for Sesko to thrive in. Newcastle and Manchester United are locked in a transfer battle to sign the 22-year-old. The two sides have submitted big bids to bring Sesko to their respective clubs. The Magpies struck first with a rejected offer before coming back with an improved proposal worth £70million plus add-ons. However, the Red Devils have lodged a bid of their own worth £65.1m plus a further £8.7m in add-ons, and a final decision from the Slovenian international looks to be imminent. Jordan appeared on talkSPORT to discuss the choice Sesko faces, admitting that if money weren't an issue, then Newcastle should be his prime destination. "If I were in his shoes, if the economics of the deal were that I wasn't being compromised financially by going to Newcastle over Manchester United, I think it's a great move," Jordan said, before he went on to discuss the former Bournemouth boss. "I think Eddie Howe is a brilliant manager – I had my reservations about him in the past – I've had conversations already. I like him very much, and I think he's done a brilliant job. "So I would be looking at Newcastle rather than Man United." Jordan went on to note that everything Sesko does would be looked at under a microscope when playing under Amorim at United, whereas he would have more freedom to grow while developing under Howe. Jordan added: "I think because Newcastle comes with expectation, but doesn't come with the same pressure that Man United comes from. "Whilst people focus on Newcastle, they focus on it because Newcastle makes a lot of noise, because it's a very passionate football club and the fans are very motivated by it. It doesn't have the day-to-day scrutiny that Man United has. "It doesn't matter what happens, you can fart in the corridor of Man United – that's heard around the world. It's not the same at Newcastle." United are reportedly confident that Sesko will be heading to the north west of England to add to their attacking line, having secured the signatures of Brentford's Bryan Mbeumo and ex-Wolves man Matheus Cunha already this summer. Sesko, though, is considered a ready replacement at Newcastle for Alexander Isak, whose form has understandably caught the attention of Premier League champions Liverpool. The Reds have already submitted a £110m bid for the Swede – which has been rejected – but Howe looks destined to sell the wantaway star should the Magpies first land Sesko. The Red Devils are in yet another period of transition. In November 2024, they appointed former Sporting CP boss Amorim to help the club compete back in the European places of the Premier League, but another disappointing campaign last season saw them ultimately finish in 15th and without a trophy. Meanwhile, Newcastle are on the up after securing their first piece of silverware in 70 years in the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool. They finished fifth last year in the Premier League and are set to compete in the Champions League once again this season. Meanwhile, United will be without European football this campaign after losing the Europa League final 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur. All of these things may well factor into Sesko's decision to pick black and white or Manchester red, with both sets of fans eagerly awaiting to see his choice made soon. Join our new MAN UTD WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Manchester United content from Mirror Football. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
