February 20, 2017, by Joseph Tanner

BUCS Nationals 2017 – Sunday Review

The medals kept rolling in for the University of Nottingham on the final day of the BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) National Championships in Sheffield with hundreds of our students representing the green and gold throughout the weekend in athletics, badminton, judo, karate, swimming, fencing and trampolining. There were six podium finishes for the university’s athletes on Sunday including silver in the -53kg division for UoN Karate club president Lorna Hack, bronze medals for scholar Tatum Souza in the shot put, and for the men’s judo team, adding to their three bronze medals in individual events on Saturday. It was an explosive finish to the weekend for our badminton side, Li Lian Yang defeated Lyddia Cheah of Derby to claim the gold medal in women’s singles whilst Hilda Ho and Vanessa Chien reached the final of the women’s doubles to earn silver. Malaysian international Yang also picked up a bronze in the mixed doubles with Rohan Mihda (scholar) in a thrilling finale on court in the EIS (English Institute of Sport).

Li Lian Yang recieves her BUCS Nationals women’s singles title

Despite playing almost eleven games this weekend, going into her women’s singles final clash Yang was confident of her chances against an opponent she had previously defeated three times this season in the National Badminton League and BUCS . The Malaysian humbly stated, “its just one more step til the gold medal so the pressure is on to secure victory against Cheah, I’m feeling confident but really anything can happen in a final as form is irrelevant so it really is all to play for.” It proved a stern test for the 24 year-old masters student as Lyddia Cheah took the first set 21-15 with the Derby student beginning in terrific form, but then Yang came back to take the second and third in ruthless fashion with impeccable accuracy and variation of shots. As well as the gold for Yang, doubles silver for Ho and Chien and bronze for Yang and Midha, badminton club president Ellen Liddle and Sarina Mihda progressed to the quarter-finals of the women’s singles after an excellent triumph over Sheffield Hallam.

In field athletics, Tatum Souza’s bronze in the shot put was earned with a throw of 13.75 metres – just 1.28 metres off of first place, taking 6 BUCS points for the green and gold. It was a deserved finish for the Californian whose Nationals hopes of heptathlon gold were scuppered by a leg injury, forcing her to unfortunately pull out of the long jump, high jump, and 4 x 200 metre relay over the course of the weekend. On the track there was an impressive finish in the 3000 metres final for UoN Athletics club president Jack Millar, taking two BUCS points with 7th place and a time of 8:33. A delighted Millar after the race said, “it was really tough because I’d ran in the heat yesterday and only had 24 hours to recover, the pace was quite slow at the start but it picked up and I just had to keep pushing on. I’m really happy with the final position, I was amazed that I was in the final to start with so anything beyond that was a bonus. Its also really pleasing to see how the team has done this year with the sheer amount of athletes recording personal bests and making semi-finals and finals. The club is having a great season, the men finished fifth at the BUCS Cross County two weeks ago and next for us is the BUCS Outdoor Championships in a few weeks.”

Away from the (EIS) English Institute of Sport at Ponds Forge, in the pool Courtney Price made another A final yesterday finishing sixth in the 100 metre backstroke with a time of 1:04. At the same location in karate, Lorna Hack’s silver completed an excellent weekend for the club in the novice women’s -57kg while Isobel Bruce just missed out on a bronze medal in the -68kg division. At the All Saints Sports Club in judo, the men’s Team Championship bronze came after hard wins against Bath and Southampton before a 3-3 tie in the semi-finals which meant Nottingham and Angela Ruskin finshed as joint bronze medallists. The men’s trampolining squad finished fifth overall at IceSheffield – achieving 5 BUCS points for the green and gold.

Courtney Price in her 100 metre backstroke final at Ponds Forge

After this weekend’s results the green and gold have closed the gap to just under 200 points between themselves and second-placed Durham in the BUCS rankings. The points secured by the UoN Sports teams this weekend in Sheffield will no doubt be instrumental in the university’s overall BUCS total come the end of the season. Enormous praise and credit must go to the hundreds of University of Nottingham students who competed in a fantastic weekend of university sport in Sheffield.

 

 

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