Olympic triple jumper faces media spotlight at the University of Derby

Commonwealth Games hopeful Ben Williams faced the media spotlight this week when University of Derby journalism students put him through his interview paces.  
 
The British Triple Jumping champion began the build-up to his Birmingham Commonwealth medal campaign by giving an insight into life as an elite sportsperson to 100 students at the University’s Kedleston Road campus.  
 
He then faced TV cameras and radio microphones as sports and news journalism students were given exclusive interviews with the 30-year-old Olympic triple jumper. 
 
The guest lecture and journalism interviews event is the latest partnership between the University and digger giant JCB, which sponsors Ben. It also sees business, engineering and manufacturing engineering degree apprentices from the company’s World Headquarters in Rocester and Foston’s JCB Power Systems studying at Derby. 
 
World Junior Games gold medallist Ben said:

“I’ve just come back from a pretty gruelling Florida training camp and am back at my Loughborough base now, so it was brilliant to take a break from the training and see the next generation of Laura Keunssbergs and Dan Roans in action.  
 
“It was a win-win situation really - giving me the chance to brush up on my interview skills ahead of the Commonwealth Games and giving the students an opportunity to put their journalistic learning into practice.”

BA Journalism student Amelia Hopkinson said:

"Having the opportunity to film and interview a Commonwealth Games medal contender is brilliant.  It means we put our professional journalism skills into practice and get a taste of working in the industry."   

University of Derby Head of Journalism Gurvinder Aujla-Sidhu said:

“Working with major businesses like JCB gives our students many great opportunities. Real-world exclusives like this are the very best training our students can get before striking out into the world of news and sports journalism.   
 
“We cannot thank Ben enough for taking time out of his training schedule to share his story and support the next generation of news-makers.”  

Follow Ben Williams’ Commonwealth campaign on Instagram @benjump18 or on Facebook @jcb.