Success for Cardiff University students at BUCS Nationals

BUCS Nationals is in its 5th year and brings together the individual BUCS Championship events for three days of competition. It’s the largest student competition in the UK, with 6000 students descending on Sheffield for a weekend of competition across nine sports.

For our Cardiff University students, BUCS Nationals proved a hugely successful weekend with seven individual medallists, one team medal and many finalists across multiple sports.

The first medal of the weekend came in the BUCS Nationals Fencing competition, consisting of individual fencers competing in either of the three disciplines; epee, foil and sabre. Krystof Gibbon beat a number of top level fencers to clinch the bronze medal in the men’s epee. Kristoff wasn’t the only Cardiff University Fencing medallist, with Costanza Peretti also getting bronze in the women’s foil competition.

The rifle shooters were in action at Staverley Shooting ground in the BUCS Short Range Championships. The top 8 teams and top 20 individuals qualified for the Championships and first up was the Short Range Team competition on Saturday. Our mixed team of six shooters finished 4th, only narrowly missing out on a medal, however this was the highest place finish for the Cardiff University Rifle Club since 2010. Jessica Powell got a special mention for being the only shooter of the day to shoot 100 and Dean Bale finished the day with the highest individual score, so a great start by all on day one. On Sunday it was time for the Short Range Individual Championships and three of our HPP rifle shooters; Dean Bale, Jessica Powell and Ruth Holloway were in action. Dean added another BUCS gold medal to his collection, winning the men’s competition to follow up his BUCS Small Bore gold in April last year. In the ladies competition, Jessica Powell finished 6th and Ruth Holloway 8th, in what was all their first Short Range Rifle Championships. A fantastic weekend for all our rifle shooters and we will see them back in action in the BUCS Small Bore Championships in April.

The BUCS Indoor Athletics Championships was held in the English Institute of Sport and spanned three days of competition. Friday and Saturday for the majority of events were qualifying rounds with Sunday consisting of 22 finals. Cardiff University Athletics Club were out in force with a number of students competing across a variety of different events. Notably we had two medallists. First up was Sarah McKeever, who in her 3rd and final year at Cardiff University, bettered her silver from last year to win gold in the women’s pole vault competition. Not only did Sarah win gold, but she also cleared the magic 4 metre barrier resulting in a new personal best which was a fantastic way to finish her final BUCS Indoor Athletics competition. Shortly after this, Andrew Wright ran a fantastic 1500m to clinch silver in the men’s 1500m in an incredibly exciting race to set an indoor personal best and better his 4th place finish from last year. We also had finalists in the women’s 3000m with Abigail Howarth finishing 7th and Nathan Gardener 10th in the men’s pole vault, just shy of his personal best. Cardiff University Athletics Club will be back in action in a couple of months in the BUCS Outdoor Athletics Competition.

The weekend came to an exciting close in the BUCS Nationals Trampolining Championships, which saw over 830 athletes competing. Cardiff University Trampoline Club had many competing in this competition and in the final event, the BUCS 1 Elite, we finished with two medallists. Zainub Akbar won gold and Ben Cowper got silver, a fantastic achievement for both. Rebecca Bough was also a medallist in the BUCS 2 event and overall Cardiff University Trampoline Club got team gold.

Overall a highly successful weekend and well done to all Cardiff University students who competed this weekend!