The atmosphere in Sheffield was brilliant, and it was really encouraging to see the eye-catching red of the Lions all around both venues.
ATHLETICS & CROSS COUNTRY
Overall, it was the most successful BUCS indoors yet for our Athletics and Cross Country Club, with the most medals and most points accumulated in the club’s history, leaving them in second place in the overall championships.
During Friday’s qualification rounds, Diani Walker made her way to the final unscathed before picking up BUAC’s first medal of the weekend with a silver, the first of many medals to come. Other highlights from Friday’s qualifiers included all four of Birmingham’s 800m runners making it through the heats.
On Saturday every event had an athlete make it through their respective heat/semi-final. Individual highlights included Saskia Millard qualifying the fastest across the women’s 3,000m heats, then going on to get BUAC’s first gold medal of the championships. Maisie Grice finished not far behind with a personal best of 9:29.86, earning her a bronze medal in her first 3,000m indoor final.
In the Men’s race Mike Ward stayed at the front pack throughout taking BUAC’s second gold medal, and then the Women’s 800m final saw both Tilly Simpson and Cesca Brint racing together, with Cesca achieving an indoor personal best of 2:07.53, earning her a silver medal in the process.
The 1500m final was yet another that featured two BUAC athletes, with Sabrina Sinha gaining a gold medal and Emily Thompson winning a well-earned bronze. In the men’s triple jump Josh Woods opened up with a 14.95m effort, which would prove enough to take home the gold medal in this event – the first medal of the field athletes.
It was however the Men’s long jump that was one of the most anticipated events for BUAC, with the duo of Sam Khogali and Jake Burkey forming of the strongest pairings the club has had for a very long time. BUAC president Jake took home a huge gold medal with a leap of 7.50m, and Sam finished with a bronze.
Finally, the two relay teams stepped out to finish the championships. The girls were up first and Olivia Kimbowa ran a storming first leg before handing the baton over to Hannah Jones, with Jasmine Clark taking the third leg. Following her victory in the 1,000m at the Grand Prix on Saturday, Izzy Boffey ran a hugely important anchoring leg, consolidating the silver medal for the Women’s squad.
For the boys, all eyes were then on Harry Fisher to anchor the men home after some great runs from his teammates, and he brought the baton home in third place – another UoB medal!
SWIMMING
Congratulations to our swimming club who performed excellently Ponds Forge Sports Centre over the weekend. Both the Women’s and Men’s representatives all qualified for the 100m and 1500m heats, and the mixed 4x100m medley relay saw Ollie Morgan, Tom Hamilton, Abi Lacey and Laura McNab finish in 4:05.18 for a new club record.
In Sunday’s final session the club won a brilliant three medals for UoB, with Frances Newe becoming BUCS Nationals champion with a gold medal in the 400IM in a 6-second PB. Both Ollie Morgan and Laura McNab returned home with bronze medals.
CLIMBING
BUCS Nationals was a great first competition of the year for UoB’s climbing club. Congratulations to Sammy Oakes for winning the men’s category and Kylar Giorgi for placing 2nd.
FENCING
Well done to both the Men’s Sabre fencers who made it through to T64, and the Women’s Foil athletes, who performed exceedingly well and made it to the final 32 at nationals.
BADMINTON
The way our Badminton Club worked together during Nationals was outstanding. A special shoutout goes to the Women’s Doubles team who sailed through the qualifying rounds, as well as to our Mixed Doubles who made it through to the quarter finals!
