Having spearheaded Cardiff University’s Water polo and swimming success over the last four years, earlier this month Daniel Luxton, a final year Mathematics student, was named on the shortlist of three for the prestigious BUCS Sportsman of the Year. Unfortunately, in this contest, Dan lost out. Not something he’s been particularly used to of late.
In his four years in the Swimming and Water polo club, Dan has shown total dedication as a player and as coach to both the men’s and women’s teams, with no financial reward. In doing so, the club has become Cardiff University’s most successful, with the men’s and women’s teams both qualifying for the BUCS finals again in Sheffield last year. Dan was the top scorer at the finals, named ‘player of the tournament’ and played every minute of every match.
At the Celtic Nations tournament, where Dan captained the Welsh Universities team, Dan won Gold and Silver in the 50m and 100m breaststroke respectively, once again becoming the events top scorer. In between all his rigorous training programme and competing, Dan still managed to find the time to coach the women’s water polo team up to and throughout the event.
Outside of the BUCS sporting world, Dan plays for the Welsh Wanderers water polo team in the British League, in which he has recently become the third highest goal scorer after another successful season. On the international stage, Dan continues to impress representing Wales while being invited to play for Great Britain.
With the Olympic games less than three years away, it is disappointing for Dan, as he enters his final year at university, that funding levels have been reduced for water polo, making the challenge of getting into the Olympic squad in London 2012 all the more difficult.
Head of Sport and Exercise Stuart Vanstone commented “Daniel has been a huge asset to Sport at Cardiff University…just being named on the short list for such a prestigious award is an achievement when you consider nominations were welcomed from all 143 BUCS registered institutions.
“The key to succeeding as an elite athlete in University is to find the right balance and level of commitment between academic studies and training/competing in the chosen sport. Daniel has managed to do this successfully whilst continuing to represent the University in BUCS and as such we’d like to congratulate him on another great year”.
Losing out to Calum Robb of Heriot Watt University, who became BUCS Sportsman of the Year at the Keele University-hosted event earlier this month, was a disappointment. All the signs, however, are pointing to a bright future for Cardiff University’s Daniel Luxton.
