At this year’s Blues Dinner and Sports Awards, Georgia Winkcup was honoured with a Blue – an incredible achievement for the 22-year-old student. Rather than celebrating her success on stage however, she was busy breaking records on the track at Sydney Olympic Park.
Winkcup smashed the UniSport Australian record by over five seconds as she stormed to gold in the 3000m steeplechase. The laidback law student is taking her success in her stride.
“Heading into [the] race I was really relaxed and excited as uni games is always an event I look forward to,” she said.
“With the Australian National Athletics Championships having only finished up a few days before uni games began, my preparation for the race was really all about recovering from nationals and refreshing for the weekend to come.
“Having not run as well as I had hoped at nationals I was really hoping to run a little faster at uni games and feel a little better doing it. Finishing with the UniSport record and my season best time was a fantastic way to end my steeplechase season.”
Although it was an incredible event to be part of, Winkcup lamented being unable to attend the Blues Dinner and Sport Awards as well.
“I wish I could’ve been there to celebrate everyone’s achievements,” she said.
“Receiving such a prestigious award is incredibly important to me as I know how much a Blues award means for athletes both inside and outside of their sport.
“Having seen friends and idols receive this award in the past, I am so humbled to be able to join that group of people as a Blues recipient.”
With her two big Nationals events behind her, Winkcup is looking forward to focussing on her law studies and ensuring that she also excels in her student life.
“I’m studying Arts / Law at UNSW and I’m in my fifth year,” she said.
“Given that I am presently working as a paralegal in a boutique law firm and absolutely loving it, I have no doubt that a career in law is where I see myself in the future.
“As my degree comes to an end I am hoping to have the opportunity to test the waters in a larger firm and see where that takes me. A grad job with one of the big six firms is ideally what I hope to achieve and I plan to do all that can to make that happen.”
Attending her first UniSport Nationals was new Ben Lexcen scholar Susie Douglas, who is in her first year of Exercise Physiology at UNSW.
“I had a great experience, it was really nice to meet a whole new group of people in different stages of their degree that I normally wouldn’t meet,” she said.
“I also loved the team spirit, with athletics being an individual sport, you miss out on the team experience a lot of the time but the uni gets behind each athlete which is really nice.”
Douglas is also working on balancing sport with study, a challenge that she’s relishing after her first term.
“I’ve loved my time at UNSW so far,” she said.
“I’m really enjoying my degree and meeting all these new people. Balancing assessments with nationals and uni games was tough but the UNSW support system is great so it really took the stress off.”