As always, BUCS Outdoors is met with excitement as our best batch of BUACers across the club come together to showcase exactly why we are the best university athletics club in the country. This year marks no exception, with the one of the largest BUAC teams ever assembled ready to fight!
Day 1 emphasised the amazing BUAC throwers we have. Across the throws team, they amassed 24 BUCS points alone on day 1, and so much more is to come from them. The highlight of the day was the 2-3 podium for our Javelin boys. Fenton Bishop-Timings threw 65.21m to streak away to 2nd. James Pratt followed just in behind with a last round clutch throw of 63.94m, holding his breath as the throwers ahead tried to claw him back but held on for bronze. Alongside them, Jake Matthews claimed redemption from BUCS Indoors with a 15.71 throw to claim silver in the Men’s Shot Put. A richly deserved rewards for all the hard-work out BUAC shot put record holder has put in over the winter since returning to university. Alongside Jake, Craig Moncur did incredibly to make the shot final, and fought valiantly to a 10th place finish in 12.49m. In the cage, Emelina Darvell made a statement at the start of the day, throwing a lifetime best of 42.98m! Within her series, she also threw 3 consecutive personal bests from rounds 3 to 5, signifying the incredible form she will be in this summer. Helena Van Hullen in Final B also threw a PB, reaching 26.32m for the fresher.
Keeping on the field, a range of jumps qualification also occurred on Day 1. The male jumpers completely swept into the finals; Kimani Jack, Toby Cherry and Will Sutton all qualifying for the High Jump final. Will qualified 6th, Kimani 8th and Toby 10th, all with a jump of 1.91m. In the sand over at the triple jump, Josh Woods kept the good form of America rolling with one and done qualification into the final of 14.66m, placing him second. Matt Cox fought to the end, just making it in 12th with 13.64m. In the women’s triple jump, Daisy Harris-Bosancic jumped 10.02m, with Trinity O’Connor unfortunately no scoring, both missing out on the final.
Onto the track, and from gun at 10.30am to tape at 6.20om on Day 1, fast and furious action was all around the blue oval of SportCity. Beginning the day with the 1500s, where all 4 BUAC girls strolled into Day 2’s semi-final. Elsa Palmer and Zoe Hunter matched stride-for-stride to qualify together in heat 1, Freya Bennett qualifying well to come 11th overall in the heats, and Kate Willis backing with a 17th place finish, also in 4 minutes 40 seconds. On the men’s side, Luke Richardson, Isaac Rothwell, and Tyler Bilyard all ran a tactical beauty to make it within the designated automatic qualifications. James Vaughan ran supremely quickly to place 20th in the heats overall, however the new non-automatic clause in the World Athletics contract state its only top qualifiers, therefore he missed out by 1 place.
In the 800s, it was a clean sweep of BUAC qualification into Sunday’s semi-finals. Last years Outdoor winner Abbie Ives led the quartet of BUAC women home in qualification; followed by Lottie Dewar, Cam Kelly-Gordon, and Ruby Simpson. On the men’s side, it was Sam Myers on BUCS debut who put in a great first account with a strong kick down the home straight to be the fastest BUAC 800 qualifier. Previous 800 medallist Archie Parkinson, previous finalist Ben Gardiner, and BUCS debutant Raihan Leniore also all qualified safely through.
The sprinters also turned up for BUAC on Day 1. In the 100s, Darian Moore, Suresh Black, Nathan Biggs, and Jasmine Wilkins all qualified safely through to the days semi-final. With the final on Sunday morning, all eyes were on who could make one of those coveted spots. In the women’s 100, Jas did incredibly well to make a top 2 spot, running 11.73 to give her a great shot at a medal on Sunday morning. In the men’s 100, Darian and Suresh came extremely close, missing out by hundredths for one of the top 8 spots. Nathan Biggs also had a stellar BUCS debut, running a wind assisted PB of 10.80 in the heats before just fading in the semis, and more will be coming in future years from this promising fresher.
Over the long sprints, there was more BUAC delight in qualification. In the 400H, all our speedy girls safely made it through to the newly introduced semi-finals. Orla Brennan the quickest BUACer, followed by Amelia Briggs-Goode, Meg Willis, and Molly Swingler. For the boys, Jake Minshull qualified fastest into the 400H final on Monday, with a commanding 52.19 qualification. Drew Bradley ran well on BUCS debut to claim a PB of 59.64. In the flat 400s, Izzy Skelton qualified second fastest into Sunday’s semi-finals, clocking 56.09 to put her name out in the competition as one to watch. Cara Murphy also qualified to Sunday’s semi-final in 58.86.
Finally, in the 2000m steeplechase, all 4 BUACers again qualified through to Monday’s final! Martha Collings qualified fastest for the BUAC girls, with Eadie Yelling producing a sprint worthy of her Power Social Sec title to claim one of the last auto Q spots in her heat. In the other heat, Ellen Weir controlled from the front to make it 2/2 for the chasers of matesandmiles, as Abby Michalec also qualified through!