April 17, 2022, by brzbs1

Term 2 BUCS competition is a massive success for the University!

Term two at the University of Nottingham has been packed full of sporting achievement for the #GreenandGold, most notably in BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) competition. Once the new years festivities were out of the way in January, and teams and athletes returned to campus after the break, attentions soon turned to the array of upcoming competitions.

The busy period between January and Easter sees many of BUCS’ national competitions take place for a host of sports, including the annual BUCS Nationals event held in Sheffield, as well as the culmination of the BUCS team sport season with showpiece event, BUCS Big Wednesday.

BUCS competition began for the University of Nottingham’s #GreenandGold in 2022 with a huge night of action as the Headliner series with Red Bull returned to David Ross Sports Village on the 2 February, in front of a sold-out crowd. The University of Nottingham Volleyball Club played their part on a fantastic evening of competition, winning both the men’s and women’s matches in the double header against Northumbria, and the experience would help set the club up for a brilliant run throughout the rest of the term.

A week on, and our gymnastics club were celebrating some of the first BUCS medals of 2022 for the University of Nottingham as at the BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) Gymnastics Championships, held close to the university at Hinckley Gymnastics Club in Leicestershire. After brilliant performances by our quartet of male gymnasts, the university was crowned Men’s Artistic Gymnastics BUCS Champions.

Soon after, there was more local BUCS success as our canoeists took to the water at the National Water Sports Centre in Holme Pierrepont for the BUCS Canoe Slalom Championships. Across two days of racing, the university finished with another superb medal haul which included four gold medals, one silver and five bronze.

Then came the return of one of the staples of the BUCS calendar, BUCS Nationals. Held over three days in the steel city of Sheffield, hundreds of athletes from the University of Nottingham competed across the five different sports of Badminton, Athletics, Swimming, Fencing and Climbing. With 8 medals in total for the University of Nottingham across the weekend, including golds for Simran Kaur (Athletics), Johnnie Torjussen and Sam Smith (Badminton), the event saw more fantastic success, and a brilliant team atmosphere amongst our athletes.

Before the end of the month, there was still time for our martial arts clubs to come to the fore, as the BUCS Taekwondo Winter Championships took place at our very own David Ross Sports Village, with seven more medals added by the team competing, including two golds. This included one for scholar Matthew Howell who would end the term with a gold in every BUCS competition he entered. Alongside this, our Judo club entered their national championships in Wolverhampton and were the biggest club in attendance, whilst earning five medals in the process.

As February came to a close, not even the elements could slow down the university’s success as the University of Nottingham Boat Club took to the River Tyne in Newcastle for BUCS Head 2022. Amidst stormy conditions, the club honed in on more medals for the university and claimed a glorious gold medal in the women’s coxless four. At the same time, our track cycling team were taking to the track at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Scotland for the BUCS Track Cycling Championships. The University of Nottingham’s team returned victorious from the event, claiming 7 BUCS medals including gold in the men’s points race to end the championships.

With March arriving, thoughts began to turn to BUCS Big Wednesday which would be held across our University of Nottingham campus towards the end of the month. As more and more of our teams progressed through the knockout rounds towards the finals, the anticipation grew ever bigger. This was helped by the university’s fantastic showing at the BUCS Conference Cup where our women’s hockey, women’s table tennis and men’s badminton teams came home with the gold.

Before thousands of athletes from around the country would descend on our campus though, the University of Nottingham Karate club made the same journey as many had done a month previously, heading north to Sheffield to compete in their BUCS National Championships. Over the course of two full days of action the university was crowned overall team and national champions for 2022 and won 14 medals (including novices), with 7 golds, 2 silvers and 5 bronze.

The success and momentum of our clubs continued into a phenomenal BUCS Big Wednesday event across our campus that saw 22 #GreenandGold teams compete in finals. Backed by a fantastic sell-out crowd, our university teams ended the day with 14 titles across the Championship, Trophy and Vase finals, ensuring the university’s spot atop the overall medal chart. These titles were;

As hosts, University of Nottingham Sport also set out to ensure that the occasion would be as green as possible, implementing numerous measures to ensure an environmentally friendly event.

To round out a fantastic last full week of March, the university Handball club competed in the BUCS Handball Championships, hosted by Loughborough, with our men’s team beating the hosts in the semi-final en-route to a brilliant silver medal.

To help end March in much the same vein as the rest of the term, the University of Nottingham Softball and Baseball club competed in both Nationals competitions, with the Softball squad earning a fantastic silver medal, whilst the Baseball team came away with a superb bronze.

After the intense competition of BUCS Big Wednesday, many of our athletes got straight back to work, as to begin April, individuals from the University of Nottingham Tennis Club entered the BUCS Tennis Singles Championships. The championships saw brilliant performances on the court, and our university athletes earned a trio of medals, including a superb gold for women’s champion Noppawan Lertcheewakarn.

After a packed schedule of successful BUCS competition and incredible achievements by the #GreenandGold, the term ended in a fitting manner. Our Archery club had a fantastic end to their indoor season and came away as BUCS champions, also taking home the most medals of any university! This included our Ladies Recurve team of Louisa Piper, Hannah Evans and Annabel Garner taking home the gold, as well as Matt Waters and Simran Panesar winning the Gents and Ladies Barebow events.

Before Easter arrived, the university had three teams in playoff action, attempting to gain promotion from their leagues to end their spectacular performances this season. On the final Wednesday before Good Friday, our women’s rugby union, women’s football and men’s rugby union teams all produced spectacular displays to win hugely exciting playoff finals and secure promotion! This highly explosive, entertaining and ultimately successful wins epitomised the displays of effort, commitment, desire and skill shown by our teams and athletes throughout the term. On the same day, our snowsports athletes were competing in BUCS finals competition and there was gold for Tom Rascagneres and Ollie Bignall in the men’s ski race and individual snowboard respectively. Our mixed ski duals team also claimed a fantastic silver, narrowly missing out on making it 3 golds at the event.

Aside from BUCS competition, similar success has been seen for many of our clubs including our Polo, Cheerleading and Trampolining clubs. Our Polo clubs top two teams both placed first in their divisions at Winter Nationals, whilst our Trampolining athletes claimed multiple medals in NEUT (Northern English Universities Trampolining) league competition. For our Cheerleading squads, this season has been the clubs most successful to date, and term two included gold medals at the ICC British Open, held at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham.

We would like to congratulate every single person who has contributed to our enormous success this term, including the coaches and physios who have supported our athletes throughout. We’ve had a brilliant time seeing the successes that our athletes have achieved, and we look forward to more continued success in 2022.

 

University gymnasts with their BUCS trophy

As well as a reputation for academic excellence, we have a history of sporting success and are passionate about supporting promising athletes during their time at the University of Nottingham. To find out more about our Sports Scholarship, please click here.

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