Exclusive interview: Chris Sury

**Why do you think you won?**

I think I won, first of all, because of experience in Warwick Sport. I knew I wanted to go for Sports officer since Christmas in second year, so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking how to improve sport at Warwick and Warwick Sport in general. I had my manifesto done and written by Christmas this year. I talked to all my coaches from all the sports that I’ve played, getting their ideas of how to improve and develop so that everyone can benefit from sports development across campus. My manifesto had three really strong points, there’d be three points that I’d look to develop straightaway which would be club collaboration: I really feel that clubs should be working together. There are a lot of clubs that are similar and, as sports people, are using similar muscle groups: rugby and judo in particular. I did rugby in my first year but stopped because I wanted to push swimming and other sports, then I started judo in my third year because I really wanted to see what martial arts was like at Warwick. They’re both really similar and use the same muscle groups, and so they’d really benefit from a session outside their normal training sessions, working together, collaborating with each other to improve their fitness and improve their technique, learning from each others’ different arts. This, in effect, as well as developing their sports and making it better would also enhance the sporting community because people are going to get to know each other a little bit more. Next: lots of clubs train early. Especially this year, being a finalist, it’s been really cool to go to swimming sessions really early in the morning, which starts at 7.20am. My flatmate who
plays football also comes in early, about 7am, to play football, and I really feel that clubs could work better together if there was an opportunity to socialise after these kinds of sessions. If there was the opportunity for a sponsored breakfast, which companies have also taken an interest in when I’ve spoken to them about it before, this would also develop the sporting community. They’re going to get to know each other better and it’s going to create a domino effect across campus where everyone’s talking about sports a little bit more, create a
better ethos on campus surrounding sports and more recognition for achievements. I really feel that people should know these. Whether they’re interested in sport or not it’s still something to be proud of as a Warwick University student.

**What more could be done for students who don’t feel that they’re good enough to join sports societies?**

I do feel like that, but only to a certain extent. Half of the sports clubs I know do a lot more to bring other students in and to give plays an opportunity to play their sport. I do feel that KPMG league extension and better advertisement of the KPMG leagues is really important so that more people at university, if they wanted to come and they wanted to play cricket, tennis or basketball, basketball in particular I feel, and they didn’t make the team, should still be given the opportunity to play their sport competitively, so I want my aim to be
to develop the inter-hall leagues and KPMG leagues. Also, I know it’s very hard, because it does depend on volunteers, so that will be down to me: to enthuse my volunteers.

**How do you think George Whitworth has done this past year? How do you feel about working with him next year?**

I think he’s done a really good job. Obviously I think it would really benefit me working with George Whitworth because he has been in a position before. You can look at a year as a really long time but on the other hand you can look at a year as a really short period of time to be constantly changing over Sabbatical position[s], sometimes talking to a other Sabbs doesn’t really give people an opportunity to actually change a lot of things, so I’m hoping that George and I can work alongside each other and he’ll be able to advise me a lot more.

**What do you hope to work on first?**

One of the most important things to do when I’m first in is to help clubs, especially clubsthat are struggling for members, to advertise themselves better and review their aims as a club and where they think they’re going in the future because if these aims are reviewed and if they have aims for where they want to be in, say, three years time, then corporate companies are going to be more likely to want to invest in them and they’re going to get more money and it’s going to benefit them for equipment and stuff like that. Support with sponsorship is really important. Some people may look at it as taking it away slightly from sport.

**What are your opinions on sponsorship in the Union? Do you think that there should be central decisions for sports in particular?**

In an ideal world it would be nice if none of these companies existed and when you look at the Olympics and the companies that are sponsoring 2012 in London, this is perhaps the real world and there’s no reason why Warwick shouldn’t replicate that on some level.

**How do you feel about sponsorship from non-ethical companies? Would you see it as necessary for some sports societies?**

I feel quite strongly about fair trade and also the environment, but I don’t see why that should hinder sponsorship on campus because it is a free country.

_This interview was transcribed by Katherine Price._