Fit to win

Citation

(2000), "Fit to win", Work Study, Vol. 49 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2000.07949eaf.006

Fit to win

Keywords Sport, Awards, Research

A 19 year old student with a passion for swimming has won a prestigious prize linked to sport at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Detroit, Michigan. Nicola Revely, a student at Durham Sixth Form Centre, competed against 1,200 students from over 40 countries. Her project, in the medicine and health sciences category, was a study on the effects of fatigue on cardiovascular fitness. This won Nicola fourth prize and $500 dollars in the grand awards.

An international breast stroke swimmer, Nicola's ambition is to become involved in sport as a career, both teaching and as a coach, and participating. She plans to study sports science at university.

Nicola, from Larkshill, Esh-Winning, qualified for the Intel ISEF at the British Youth Science Fair at the Royal Society in London earlier this year, winning the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair Prize.

She recruited 20 competitive swimmers from the Derwentside swimming club to take part in her experiments. Ten males and ten females between 14 and 18 years old were divided into sprinters and distance swimmers.

The research analysing the relationships between lactate levels in the blood and heart rate indicated that sprinters and distance swimmers needed to train quite differently: with distance swimmers focusing on endurance sets and sprinters on sprint sets.

Dr A. Smith, head of Biology at Durham Sixth Form Centre said: "The commitment that Nicola has always shown toward her sport was transferred to her A-level biology project. And what's amazing is that I doubt many even know that she's an international swimmer, she's so self effacing and focussed."

Five students from Northern Ireland also came away with honours at the Intel ISEF finals. Conor Higgins, 17, Angela Wilson, 18, and Elizabeth Crawford, 18, won second place in the grand award, team projects, worth $1,500 dollars. Conor, Angela and Elizabeth, students at Hazelwood Integrated College in Belfast, competed in the Biochemistry category with their project "Cereal Killer?". They won their place at Intel ISEF through the Young Innovators fair.

James McKenna, 17, and Clare O'Connell, 16, won a third place in the grand awards, worth $1,000 dollars, for his project Wavelet Analysis of Seismological Data. James and Clare are students at Loreto College, Londonderry. They were finalists at the British Youth Science Fair.

More than 3 million students aged between 15 and 18 competed in regional ISEF affiliated fairs across the globe to win the chance to take on the world's best. Prizes include over $2 million dollars in scholarships, tuition and grants and scientific equipment. The two overall winners of the Intel ISEF receive all-expense paid trips to attend the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.

ISEF, in its fifty-first year, and its sister contest Intel Science Talent Search, have produced between them five Nobel Laureates.

More than 40 countries and 1,223 young students competed in this year's finals in Detroit, Michigan; 52 per cent were male, 48 per cent female.