Gold medallist drops in to Ayrshire College

It’s not every day a gold medal winning athlete comes through the doors of Ayrshire College!

It was great to welcome Kayleigh Haggo back to the Kilmarnock Campus to launch the Row Britannia Ayrshire challenge – with her World Para-Athletics Championship medal around her neck. 

Kayleigh graduated from Ayrshire College in 2017 from an HNC Coaching and Developing Sport course. 

Since then she’s picked up the court medal for her studies at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), and a gold medal (that we keep mentioning!) at the World Para-Athletics Championships, held in Dubai in November 2019.

We caught up with Kayleigh after she rowed the first mile of Row Britannia Ayrshire to find out more about what she’s achieved. 

Kayleigh said: “Row Britannia Ayrshire is such a good cause – so good luck to everyone who gets involved!

“Ayrshire College made a big impact on my life. I always like to come back here to visit, it’s where my sports coaching started. I really enjoyed my course here and made some good friends as well.

“Since I completed my HNC, I went straight into second year of the Sports Coaching and Development course at UWS and graduated with my degree after third year. 

“I really enjoyed it and it was actually okay balancing my studies with competing, because I prepared myself well and had a practice schedule all set up. I actually graduated the day before I went to the World Championships. So that was a busy week! 

“I did the 100m race running event in Dubai and came away with the gold medal and a new world record. The reaction has been fantastic – it’s good to see the sport getting recognised more. 

“Since the World Championships I’ve had some time off, spending time with friends and family. Then I got back into training at the start of January. The next big event is the European Championships in June, which will be held in Poland. My main goal is to get faster this year.”

Good luck Kayleigh!