The run up to this year’s BUCS Outdoor Championships was tricky. Our squad of sprinters were hit with injuries (unrelated to our training), unfortunate events and dropouts meaning that several athletes were last minute replacements. In addition, the 4-week Easter break made training very difficult for those athletes who don’t live near an athletics track. However, we had fantastic blocks of training before and after Christmas, and we had been practicing relay changeovers for months. In addition, many of the athletes came back to university early to train. I cannot fault the attitude of those athletes we took! Let’s see how they did:

Ade – 11.48 (+2.1) – PB by 0.15 (but slightly windy). Ade ran a truly awful race; he was tense, stumbled and jogged across the line in frustration, but still ran a huge PB! He is going to run much faster this summer and ran a brilliant relay leg later in the championships.
Cellan – 11.74 (+3.1) – PB by 0.03 (but windy). More to come this summer!
Hannah – 12.85 (+2.1) – PB by 0.17 (but slightly windy). First 100m under 13 seconds!
Pippa – 14.09 (+1.6) – Fastest time since 2018 and 0.24 faster than she’s run in 3 years at university.

Vlad – 22.95 (-0.8) – A disappointing time due to chronic hamstring problems that have been mismanaged for 2-3 years. Vlad is a fantastic athlete who works hard, but he needs time off and fresh professional input. He should have been running close to 22.00 and ran 22.6 at a low-key open meeting in bad weather a week earlier. Luckily, we have Vlad for 3 more years!
Pete – 24.55 (-0.2) – Only 0.01 off a PB despite running 75m with a strained hamstring and not having done proper sprint training for 6 weeks. Pete was a late substitute. When he get’s his injury sorted, he’ll be flying this summer.
Ayo – 26.41 (+0.8) – SB by 0.20 and a great benchmark for the summer. This is also an athlete who is clearly really enjoying training and racing after a few years of sporadic injuries.
Abbie – 28.74 (-1.3) – PB by 0.48 into a headwind having only just recovered from a broken ankle that had kept her out of weight-bearing training for 5 of the 6 weeks leading up to BUCS. She’s only going to get faster this summer!

Maurice – 5.22m (0.0) – PB by 17cms and looked composed in his first ever major competition.

Men’s 4x100m – 43.88 – 3rd fastest time on record for the University. Fastest since 2013.

This was achieved with an under-strength team of sprinters possessing a fantastic attitude, and who were well-drilled with changeovers. Worthy of a shout-out is Maurice. He was told with only 1 week to go that he needed to run the first leg because of dropouts and injuries. This is despite being a jumper who, until starting university this year, hadn’t competed in anything more than a school sports day. He nailed his leg and changeover, and always had a smile on his face and a positive attitude. Ade also smashed his second leg, performing 2 super-smooth changeovers. Cellan was as reliable as ever and showed composure to handover safely to Akeem who was a last-minute call-up. We knew that he would do his job on the last leg because he’s a very experienced athlete with a great attitude.

Women’s 4x100m – 51.62 – 3rd fastest time on record for the University. Almost 3 seconds quicker than has been achieved in the previous 2 years.

Just like the men, this team of sprinters was well-drilled, and the athletes nailed their changeovers. Pippa showed a fantastic attitude all weekend and in the run-up to the competition. Ayo is a very experienced athlete who we knew we could trust with 2 changeovers and the longest leg. She smashed it! Abbie was on third leg and ran excellently. In fact, she was brilliant all weekend, bringing the banter and performing captain duties. Lastly, Hannah powered home with her third impressive performance on a busy weekend.

In summary, a great weekend, but next year will be even better. A university of our size and reputation should be taking sprinters who can at least reach semi-finals, and our relay teams should be getting to finals.