A round up of last weekends exciting BUCS Gatorade Nationals results.
6000 student athletes from 134 UK universities and colleges competed in 12 sports this weekend at the BUCS Gatorade Nationals in Sheffield. Cardiff Met put in a huge performance across the board, winning 24 medals and claiming several highly contested titles including men and women’s team trampolining gold’s and placing 2nd in both men and women’s athletics team titles.
Swimming
At the aptly named Pond Forge swimming pool Cardiff Met claimed 2 golds and made a total of 19 personal bests, placing 10th overall with a total of 63 points, the best peroformance by the Cardiff Met swimmers ever. Notable performances from Ieuan Lloyd who won 2 Gold medals (200m freestyle and 200m IM) and placed 4th in the 400m, and the male and female relay teams who reached both sets of finals (medley & freestyle).
Athletics
In arguably the most hotly contested events of the BUCS Gatorade Nationals, Cardiff Met put in a truly outstanding performance claiming 9 Medals overall, with two individual golds. The Women’s team were just 0.5 points from the top spot. The narrowest of margins from winning the team title in recent history. Together with the Men’s results, we placed second overall.
Cardiff Met started the first day with a bang- setting the tone for the whole championships. The Friday session saw the team take 4 medals: Mica Moore (Silver 60m) Becca Chapman (Bronze 60m) Lauren O’Reilly (Bronze 60m Hurdles) & Dewi Hammond (Bronze 60m).
Saturday was a strong day of qualifications and laid the foundations for the final day. This started off with another medal for Becca Chapman, with a long jump silver. The first gold of the championships was secured through a dominant piece of front running by Steve Mitchell in the 3000m, who won by a staggering 7seconds. James Thie managed to snatch a gold medal in the 1500m to boost the team position. The day’s final events, the Men’s and Women’s 4 x 200m relays, provided the most drama of the weekend. First, the women where impeded by Loughborough when battling out the last leg and were rightfully awarded the gold medal in a new club record of 1:28.94. Then, the men were obstructed by East London and our incoming athlete went to ground. Our team somehow managed to get up and still take a bronze medal.
The team scores showed the battle for every point was vital and at the end of proceedings the men took a strong third overall. The women where closer than ever before to the team title and missed out by 0.5 points (59.5 to 60.0) to Loughborough. Combined, this put us second overall. A testament to the hard work of all the team, coaches, committee and support staff.
A great platform is set for the Outdoor Championships in May.
Trampolining
The trampoline team dominated BUCS with 2 gold’s, 2 silvers and 2 bronze individual medals and to top it off won the men’s and ladies overall competition, therefore making them the BUCS 2014 trampoline champions.
12 out of 16 of the team got through the first round and into the finals, automatically setting a high standard for the other universities to compete against to become the overall champions. Andrew Carr went through to finals in 10th place out of 36 and placed 9th in the finals of BUCS 5, Amy Taylor went through to finals in 29th place out of 206 and placed 32nd in the finals of BUCS 5, Tom Wright went through to finals in 13th place out of 68 and placed 9th in the finals of BUCS 4, Sadie Lee went through to finals in 10th place out of 175 and placed 25th in the finals of BUCS 4, Bailey Freeland Jones went through to finals in 5th place out of 36 and placed 11th in the finals of BUCS 2, Josh Odell went through to finals in 3rd place out of 36 and placed 3rd in the finals of BUCS 2, Warren Moreland went through to finals in 4th place out of 36 and placed 2nd in the finals of BUCS 2, Matt Peall went through to finals in 1st place out of 36 and placed 1st in the finals of BUCS 2, Taylor Burge went through to finals in 5th place out of 44 and placed 8th in the finals of BUCS 2, Roisin O’Brien went through to finals in 9th place put of 44 and placed 2nd in the finals of BUCS 2, Kat Venn went through to finals in 4th place out of 44 and placed 1st in the finals of BUCS2 and finally Kirsty Briggs went through to finals in 4th place out of 28 and placed 3rd in the finals of BUCS 1.
With Roisin O’Brien’s, Kat Venn’s and Kirsty Brigg’s scores combined they dominated the women’s competition and placed 1st in the overall competition becoming women’s 2014 BUCS champions
As well as Josh Odell’s, Warren Moreland’s and Matt Peall’s scores combined they also dominated the men’s competition and placed 1st in the overall competition becoming men’s 2014 BUCS champions.
The whole team were there to support each other and cheer each other on for the whole two days and it was all worth it to become the 2014 trampoline BUCS champions.
Boxing
Cardiff Met’s boxing entry came in the form of previous gold medal winner and scholar Dan Alsop. Dan entered in to a weight class below last year’s gold medal entry but was still towered over by many of the competition. Despite this Dan performed brilliantly, after a few closely fought rounds in the final Dan came out in the third round to box superbly, his opponent was caught off guard, leading to the judges unanimous decision to give Dan the win.
Karate
A total of three medals gained in the dojo in Sheffield, Cardiff Met’s superstar scholar Amy Wright-Hamilton claimed silver in a very closely fought final of the Women’s Senior Kumite +68kg, another scholar Lloyd Birt claimed bronze in the Men’s senior Kata. Sanan Aliyev won gold in the Senior Mens Kumite -67kg.
Badminton
The badminton team performed better than ever before this year. Nic Strange and Simon Brassington made it through to the quarter finals of the men's doubles, losing to a top England pair in three sets. Nic Strange and Bryony Morris made it through to the last 16 of the mixed doubles losing in 3 very tight sets. Bryony Morris made it through to the last 16 of the women's singles after beating the 9th seed in the third round but unfortunately lost out to seed Alex Langley (ENG) in the next round. Morgan Manwaring & Terrie Kelleher made it through to 3rd round of the mixed doubles. A really successful weekend for Cardiff Met badminton getting further than previous years and beating some top national players.
A very successful weekend for Cardiff Met, showcasing our sporting prowess over various sports. There is always opportunity to be entered in to sports you may not think are hosted by BUCS, get in touch with the Athletic Union to find out more.