Newcastle University

Two Newcastle Students, Amy Priestley and Gobinath Murugesapillai, along with Director of Sport, Colin Blackburn attend the Samsung Olympic Torch Relay Gala Diner in London on 1 December 2011.

Newcastle University has been selected by Samsung to be one of only 32 UK institutions to participate in the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. The two student places available for the torch relay were selected for the contributions that they had made to community engagement and social renewal.

Amy Priestley was a SCAN Committee member during the final year of her
degree (Town Planning 2010-11) and was involved in several environmental /social projects around Newcastle including planting Lime trees along the Great North Road (Big Tree Plant)  and helping to create the Swing Bridge Garden for the Newcastle / Gateshead Bridges Festival. Amy is currently on a work placement before returning to Newcastle to do a BA in Urban Design.

Gobinath Murugesapillai, stge 3 Biomedical Sciences, was an INTO buddy which involved befriending international students and making them feel at ease in Newcastle through the organisation of social and sporting events.  Gobi is also a volunteer first aider with St John Ambulance and has raised money for this charity by running the London Marathon (2011). 

The students have both been formally nominated by Newcastle University and Samsung along with Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Medical Sciences, Chris Day, who will be the staff torch-bearer.

Official confirmation of places in the torch relay will be announced by LOCOG in February/March 2012 once the nominations have been through the rigorous vetting and security checks.

The dinner was both a celebration for those students who have been nominated and an inspirational event that brought the reality of the Olympics, which are less than eight months away, that much closer.

The event involved speakers from Samsung including David Song, President of Samsung Electronics UK Ltd and Olympic Gold Medal Winner, Sally Gunnell, on her personal experiences of the Olympic Games. Gunnell recalled the build up to her gold winning performance in the Women’s 400m hurdles in Barcelona – and said that the torch-bearers would experience lots of the emotions, excitement and anxiety that she went through to achieve her gold medal.  She congratulated all the torch-bearers on their selection and encouraged them to live the moment in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Gobinath Murugesapillai commented “the dinner has brought the Olympics that much closer and my participation in the torch relay more of a reality.  I am so excited to be involved in this global event.  I will not really believe it until I have actually completed my leg of the relay”.