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Olympic champ shares journey to gold

16/03/2018

An Olympic champion shared the inspiring story of her journey to gold at the University of Wolverhampton.

Haruka Tachimoto is the current 70kg Judo Olympic champion, after clinching gold at Rio 2016.

She is based at the British Judo Centre of Excellence at the University’s Walsall Campus for a month to enhance the world class performance programme.

Haruka shared her journey to Rio Gold during a Sport Applicant day at the University on Thursday, 15 March 2018.

Haruka Tachimoto is a Japanese judoka ranking at 5th Dan. In the 2016 Olympics in Rio, she took Gold, beating the world number 1 and 2 ranked women along the way.

Dr Chris Sellars, Deputy Director of the University’s Institute of Sport & Human Science, said: “It is not every day that you get to quiz Olympic champions, so we are hugely grateful to Haruka Tachimoto and our British Judo colleagues for supporting the Applicant event.

“This was an opportunity for students who are applying to Wolverhampton to have a look around the campus and really get a feel for what studying here is like, so we were delighted to welcome such an inspiring guest to the event.”

Nigel Donohue, British Judo Performance Director, from British Judo, said: “It is incredibly exciting to have the calibre of Haruka to come over and work with our athletes and this is also a fantastic opportunity to get an insight into her background and pathway to becoming Olympic Champion.”

For further information about studying sport, visit: www.wlv.ac.uk/sport

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Date Issued: Friday, 16 March 2018

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