Cardiff University Sporting Success

With the 2016-2017 academic year coming to an end shortly we reflect on our student’s sporting successes this year. It goes without saying this year has been particularly successful with a total of 23 medals at the various BUCS competitions and a number of teams winning leagues, making BUCS Trophy and Championship finals and league promotions.

A number of teams made it to the BUCS Big Wednesday finals, where the majority of BUCS Trophy and Championship finals take place for team sports. Ladies Squash, Ladies Lacrosse, Men’s Hockey and Men’s Water Polo all progressed through knock out rounds to reach the Trophy finals. Ladies Squash 1sts claimed gold to win the BUCS Trophy beating Nottingham University 2nds, Ladies Lacrosse 1sts and Men’s Hockey 1sts finished runners up in the Trophy Final against Durham and Exeter respectively and Men’s Water Polo finished 4^th. Cardiff University Men’s Futsal team had a hugely successful year to become BUCS National Champions beating Loughborough University in the final in penalties. The event was held at the Copper Box Arena, the iconic venue where many London Olympic events took place, and is the first time since 2011 a Cardiff University team have become National Champions.

Nine AU clubs won their respective leagues this year with Men’s Water Polo and Men’s Futsal both winning their Premier leagues. A number of teams also made it to BUCS Premiership play offs, with Ladies Lacrosse and Ladies Football both being promoted to Premier South for 2017-2018 season. This is a result of hard work and dedication for both teams and for Ladies Football its back to back promotion from Western 2B to Premier South in two years.

We also had great team success at BUCS Individual Championship events, with our Women’s Downhill Mountain Biking team of former World Champion Manon Carpenter and teammate Chloe Pinder winning BUCS gold, as well as gold for our Women’s Surf team and Women’s Trampoline team. Cardiff University Sailing Club also had great success claiming silver in the Men’s Fleet Racing team and bronze in the Match Racing team adding to the medal tally.

We had our highest number of individual gold medals with 9 BUCS Champions this year spanning across a number of different sports from boxing, surfing, cycling, athletics, rifle and sailing. Of note, Great Britain and Welsh Cyclist Lewis Oliva won the BUCS sprint race setting a new BUCS record in the process. Great Britain athletes Zainub Akbar and Dean Bale won gold in trampoline and rifle respectively. We also secured 4 silver medals and 3 bronze medals in athletics, cycling, trampoline and fencing, all adding valuable medals to the tally and great to see so many students making the podium competing against the very best students in the country.

Outside of the BUCS framework, we have a large number of students who are part of national squads across numerous sports, as well as a few of our High Performance Programme students competing at international level in their respective sports. Lewis Oliva represented Great Britain in his debut World Track Cycling Championships held in April this year, Manon Carpenter (Downhill Mountain Biking) and Coral Kennerley (Pistol Shooting) have competed in World Cup events and Dean Bale and Zoe Northam both represented Great Britain at International Rifle Shooting events.

It’s been a successful year for our students and the hard work and commitment to their team and club has resulted in Cardiff University currently ranking 12^th in the BUCS framework out of 154 Higher Education Institutions, our second highest placing to date. Congratulations and thanks to all students and teams, Athletic Union and Sport staff involved in University Sport this year!