Sport scholar and Electrical Engineering student Sean Chigumba and his team mates will be competing for a National Championship at BUCS Big Wednesday on Wednesday 25th March. Playing Power Forward, Sean has won multiple world championships representing Great Britain at youth levels, and is now aiming to add a BUCS title to his collection. We recently spoke with Sean to find out more.
Hi Sean, could you tell me about how you came to study at Nottingham?
So, through playing wheelchair basketball I met Joe Bestwick who's the Head Coach of the Wheelchair Basketball Club here at the University of Nottingham. He spoke with me about studying at the University of Nottingham, and talking me through all the facilities here. I'd been here for camps already and things like that through basketball, so I already thought this was a good place to be and that I wouldn't mind studying here. I came to have a look at a prospect day and I liked it. I wanted to stay, study and play here so I applied for a scholarship and I got in.
I'd love to know more about your background and how you got into your sport?
I play two sports, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair racing. It started with basketball around 2011 when I was four years old. There were a few things that then cemented my passion for the sport - I went to watch a Great Britain match, and my teacher also took me to a day with lots of different sports such as wheelchair racing, sitting volleyball, blind football, and wheelchair basketball. I sat in a basketball chair, and I thought - this is amazing, I love this.
My mum has baby photos where I'm in the basketball chair and the chair's just too big for me but I'm there pushing it around everywhere - it was great! I haven't really looked back, and I've been playing wheelchair basketball for 15 years now. Then I started racing in 2022 or 2023. I did that to get faster on the basketball court but then I realised I was alright at pushing a chair so I thought I'll stick with this and see where it goes! I got to a point where I was ranked first in the country and I currently still am for the under 20s - so that's gone pretty well! I was selected to go to Switzerland in May last year where I finished 11th in the world, but hopefully I can continue to push for a 1st place finish soon.
Was there anything specific about the sport which really hooked you in?
I think it's the creativity of the game and how there's no one single way to play the game. You can play it in multiple ways. If shooting is not really your thing, there's always something else for you to do. For me, I like ball handling, dribbling with the ball and shooting. I enjoy being able to create new moves on the court and actually do stuff that's not been seen before, so I enjoy that aspect to it. I think that's what hooked me with the sport, to be honest. I remember I wouldn't be able to train with the seniors yet, so I'd watch their training sessions and create mini drills on the side to practice certain things.
How have you managed training for two elite sports at the same time?
It's definitely a lot. You have to make sure you're putting equal time into both, and then you still have your studies as well. So, I think it is difficult, but I think the sports overlap quite a bit, you can take skills from one and use them in the other. So with my racing, it's more hand speed and the technique might be different, but in my basketball chair, that's quite good because I can like push it off faster and I can last a lot longer than a lot of other people on the court because my endurance is better through track. Then I find that in basketball that helps with that initial 10 metres where I'm starting from - I've got a stronger first push because I do both sports and can bring aspects into both.
As someone in their first year still, what advice would you give to someone who is just starting university?
I think the biggest piece of advice is making sure you create a timetable and that you know where you're supposed to be, and at the right times because I still struggle with that sometimes. I've not been here for long, and I still don't know where everything is so making a timetable and planning your days a bit more is definitely helpful!
How's your BUCS season been going so far, and what do you see for the end of the season?
It's been going good so far, we've won all our games apart from one. We lost to Loughborough, which grinded on my nerves a little bit, but I think the end of the season will be good. We've recently won our quarter-final and semi-final, and we we're ready and prepared for those, and we now have a chance to redeem ourselves against Loughborough in the final. Hopefully we can win at BUCS Big Wednesday and winning my first BUCS would be quite nice!
How did you cope with the pressure of being on Team England?
For me, I enjoy the pressure quite a lot. That extra part in having to perform with lots of people watching - I enjoy that. I don't know how to explain it, but you do feel like you have to put on a show for everyone, and you get extra competitive and ready to race. I really like that aspect and it's helped me a lot with getting opportunities, so I'm grateful for being picked for England.
How have you found balancing studies and still balancing the sport?
Fortunately, once a week on Wednesday's I have almost a full day with only video lectures and nothing sports wise. I can use that as my day to catch up with revision and planning for the next week, but it can be difficult when there are lots of assignments close together and deadlines for multiple different things.
Finally, what are your goals for the future?
Within sport, I think my goal is to get to the Paralympics for two separate sports. I think it would be quite cool, and I could do them at the same time as well. I think being able to go to the games multiple times and actually win multiple gold medals is the sort of thing I want to be able to do - so that's definitely the aim. Sport is such a big part of me, and my goal is to hopefully go and play abroad professionally when I finish university.
Everyone at University of Nottingham Sport wishes Sean and his team mates the very best of luck at BUCS Big Wednesday, and we look forward to continuing to support Sean across his time here studying at the University of Nottingham.
You can find out more about the Wheelchair Basketball programme at the University of Nottingham here, and the sports scholarship programme at the University of Nottingham here.