BESP of friends

by Andrew Hamilton

Claudia Bailey and Kate Regan (pictured) are besties, BESPies and two of the busiest athletes in the Bond Elite Sport Program.

Claudia, the 2023 ADCO Sports Excellence Scholarship recipient, took a major step towards her Olympic dream by reaching the final in the K1 1000 at the ICF Sprint Canoe World Cup event in Szeged, Hungary in May.

“The Olympics is the pinnacle and it’s been a lifetime goal to compete for Australia at the Olympics,” she said. “That plays a major role in my motivation in kayaking.”

The Exercise and Sports Science student arrived at Bond as Australia’s premier junior surf lifesaver. At the 2022 World Championships in Riccione, Italy she won six gold, six silver and a junior world record. At Bond she quickly found a friend in Actuarial Science student, Kate.

“Claudia and I have been training together for about a year in the back up over longer distances. He has really taken a step forward.’’

Ben backed up his Australian Swimming Championships performance with another strong showing at the UniSport Nationals Swimming event in May. His effort played a significant role in securing Bond University’s successful defence of the overall champion title.

QAS squad and we have been really close for a while now,” Kate said. Her focus over autumn and winter was longer distance training and gym work to prepare for a hectic competition campaign when the weather begins to warm up.

“I am doing the ocean racing series in November in Perth and will hopefully compete at the worlds as well before the kayak season starts,” she said.

“Long term the Olympics are the goal and kayaking is the way to get there.”