February 15, 2020, by brzmjb1
BUCS Nationals 2020 | Super Saturday Round-up
All hopes of a peaceful overnight stay in Sheffield for our 145 athletes were dashed, as Sheffield felt the full force of Storm Dennis.
Despite the turbulent weather outside, the mood in the camp at breakfast was serene – focussed on the day of competition ahead.
Super Saturday, as it has become affectionately known, is characterised by the sheer number of finals and opportunities to progress in the competition – and it did not disappoint !
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Judo
Judo kicked-off proceedings with the Men’s and Women’s individual Dan competitions.
Gytis Jucikas and James Johnson enjoyed early success in their match-ups but were ultimately eliminated in the repechage in the latter stages of the individual event.
Ebonnie Bridges, entered into her third BUCS Nationals and to suggest her experience of this competition over the past 3 years has been varied would be an understatement.
In 2017, she was controversially disqualified in a latter stages of the tournament therefore narrowly missing out on a podium. Not to be deterred, she returned in 2018 to win a bronze medal and this year she went one better winning a silver in the -63kg category.
Fighting her way through the field with confidence, Bridges landed a final spot against Lucy King of Swansea but narrowly missed out on a gold medal. As the bout came to an end the judges sadly didn’t rule in her favour after a lengthy period of consultation at the end of the final bout.
Amy Platten fought through her first day nerves to the win gold at her maiden Championships. The UoN Sport scholar, cheered on by a large crowd at IceSheffield was jubilant at the end of her final, she said:
“I knew it would be a tight match. I have some nerves but i treated it like a randori to take pressure off and went back to absolute basics to focus. When it went to golden score I just had to focus and treat it as a fresh start, “it’s ours to win” is our GB Judo philosophy.”
“Competing in my first championships is different than I expected. Everyone has each other’s backs. You get an extra buzz doing it for the team spirit and want to do it for the university -I have absolutely loved it so far!”
Amy Platten secured gold in women’s Judo U48 after beating Sian Bobrowska. The final was a rematch of the 2019 British Junior Judo title where Platten also took the crown and set her sights on a BUCS gold and a longer term ambition to represent GB at the Olympics in Paris 2024.
Amy Platten and Ebonnie BrIdges celebrate after their Judo finals.
Karate
Having won three-golds on Super Saturday last year in the Men’s , Women’s and Mixed Kata the challenge was set to defend their titles. The mixed team started where they left off in 2018 with a powerful display of synchronicity.
The team of Matt Dowling, Lauren Fretwell and Dylan Traves were outstanding through and were fully deserving of being named back to back Champions.
Traves and Fretwell also successfully retained their individual kata titles to record 3 x Karate Golds for University of Nottingham, speaking after the victory, Lauren Fretwell said:
“We have come here as a team full of confidence, fresh off the back of a great squad training session at the weekend. It really helps when everyone puts maximum effort into their preperation and we constantly push each other to be better.
“On a personal note, considering my shoulder injury, that was the best Kata I have produced in a long time and im happy it all came together on the day. We are so proud to represent the University of Nottingham and defend our titles.”
“A huge thank you to all of the staff and students who have supported us. All distractions have been removed and we have been able to focus on our training and performance – ultimately wining gold is the perfect way to top that off.”
Lauren Fretwell winning Gold in the Women’s and Mixed Team Kata
In the afternoon, the Women’s Kumite team enjoyed success in their competition, coming from behind in the final fight of 3 competitors to guarantee a silver medal. Not wasting any time, in the final the Kumite team, were judged the best in the competition and awarded another Gold medal!
Fencing
Men’s Sabre
University of Nottingham had four students in the Men’s Sabre including UoN Scholar, Stefano Luchetti and
expectations were high for the young Argentinian, who is ranked in the top 50 in the world for Men’s Sabre.
Lucchetti, certainly lived up to his expectation, breezing through his pool matches and conceeding only 4 points in the process to seed him #2
Fencing pool results:
Mohamed Ahmed – 32
Marius Dobel-Ober – 34
Scott Sandeman – 53
Phinieas Ramsey – 69
Unfortunately for University of Nottingham, teammates Mohamed Ahmed and Stefano Lucchetti faced each other in the last 32 and sadly this was the end of the road for Ahmed. Stefano moved into the last 16 with his victory and result and after a 15-4 quarter-final victory against James Martin from the University of Exeter, the argentinian was into the last 4.
The semi-final brought a healthy crowd to the piste, and they thoroughly enjoyed watching Lucchetti put on an exhibition of Sabre against Barnaby Halliwell from Durham University. His 15-9 victory set up a showdown final.
With a silver medal already in the bag, it was time to finish the job. The only thing standing in his way was University of Oxford’s, Jan Kruszewski. Despite nerves,The match started close and competitive, point for point until Stefano took the lead that Kruszewski could not catch to win 5-15 and become the BUCS National Champion 2020. An elated Lucchetti, spoke to UoN Sport after the event,
“It’s been such a long day I don’t actually know what time it is anymore, I am physically exhausted but mentally so happy. I took each match one at a time, to get to my objective- the final. Then I just had to give it my all, I did not want to get silver today. I am a part of the Nottingham family and I wanted to win gold for the #GreenandGold.”
“My fencing has developed massively not only because of international events but because of the training regime at the University of Nottingham. The whole package, working with S&C, physios is something I haven’t had before in my life. I am seeing a lot of results physically on the piste and I am feeling a lot stronger.”
Stefano Lucchetti masterfully evades his opponent en-route to wining Men’s Sabre Gold, BUCS Nationals
Women’s Foil
Fencing club president and third year Medic, Serena Patel was back in action with a different weapon on day 2 in the Women’s Foil. Patel only dropped one game in the her foil pool to secure spot as 12th seed and a bye through to the last 32. After winning her last 16 contest against Brunel University’s, Simms Lynn, Patel met Zoe Cedric from Edinburgh University in the Quarter Final.
Sadly for Patel, Cedric (a previous training partner) took away her chance of medal in a closely fought contest.
Even though this would prove to be the end of the road, Patel was pleased to remain consistent reaching the quarter finals two years running – an excellent achievement.
Badminton
It was an early start for Shane Wilson, competing in his first BUCS Nationals the second year UoN Sport physiotherapy student was in action at 8.45 in the early slot.
He made light work of his opening matches but drew a tough match against Adam Dolman (BUCS Nationals bronze medallist) from Durham in the quarter-final.
Wilson didn’t have the best of starts and went a set behind early on. In an act of defiance, he rallied back to win 2-1 [13-21, 21-17, 21-17]. Wilson nearly lined up an all-Nottingham semi-final with Phone Naing, only for top seed Sam Parsons to upset the party by ending Naing’s run in the tournament in emphatic fashion.
Wilson will face the defending champion tomorrow in the last 4, but so far he has thoroughly enjoyed his first experience of representing the #GreenandGold.
“I really used the crowd to my advantage. The first set didn’t really go so well, second set I knew I had to grind it out, got stuck in and tried to be as solid as I could, be really focussed.”
I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, in kind of events anything can happen and I definitely feel like dark horse in this tournament. Huge thank you to the S&C and spotrs physio/rehabilitation team for supporting me through today, I cannot wait for tomorrow!”
UoN Sport Scholar, Johnnie Torjussen was also safely through to Sunday’s semi-final in the Men’s singles.
In the ladies singles, Friday’s qualifier, Khin Gon Yi Lin beat the #2 seed Emily Beach in the first round, then dispatched Samodani Wijetunge [21-17 13-21 19-21] to head into tomorrows semi-final .
Elsewhere, Hannah Bowden lost in a heartbreak deciding set to Loughborough’s Evie Burbidge from [21-10 6-21 22-20] to just go out before semi-final and Rachel Woods made it to the last 16.
The Mixed-doubles event will reach its conclusion on Sunday with the pairings of Emily Westwood/ Johnnie Torjussen and Sian Kelly/James Youle all safely through.
Finally, all #GreenandGold pairings in the Men’s and Women’s doubles will head into tomorrow’s last 16 where with everything to play for!
Athletics
After taking 5 seconds off his season best in yesterdays 800m Sam Edwards manage to go one step further and record another PB with a 1:54:93 and a 5th place semi-final finish.
Over at the long-jump pit, Emilia Del Hoyo Perez recorded a 5.76m jump to win her pool and qualify for Sunday’s final (4th overall). Joe Mills will follow Perez into Sunday, after her also stormed through his heat in the High-Jump to qualify for tomorrow’s final.
Climbing
On the outskirts of the city, the Works Climbing Centre hosted the climbing competition. An 8 strong team of University of Nottingham climbers were tasks with overcoming a number of challenging problems on the wall.
After competing at the para-climbing world championship in the summer, Martha Evans was set to climb in her first BUCS Nationals. The event providing fantastic experience of competition for all UoN climbers.
Kat Wheatley tackling the wall at the Works, BUCS Nationals
Swimming
University of Nottingham swimmers hit the pool early at Ponds Forge Swimming Pool and the day started on a high with Milly Scotchbrook (100m butterfly heat), Oswald Hood (50m breaststroke heat), and Aron Preece (400m medley) all achieving qualifying times for the Olympic trials in April.
Speaking on his 400m medley and qualifying for Olympic trials, Aaron Preece said:
“It went well, I am happy I have qualified for Olympic trials. We have got a lot of tough training ahead which will hopefully help me to drop my time again.”
Harry Manship, president of University of Nottingham Swimming Club also achieved a personal best of 32.81 in the 50m breaststroke.
UoN Sport Scholar and Para-athlete, Oludaisi Adefisan, swam in the 50m freestyle after recording a time of 28:83, spoke of his goals for the future,
“The race went well, I planned it and executed it well. I am hoping to make Paralympic trials at the start of April. It would be amazing to make the final there as my goal is to make it onto a Paralympic team.”
Head Swim Coach, Nathan Hilton, commented on the performance of the student athletes today in the pool:
“Overall we have had a pretty strong day. We have had 6/7 individuals through to the finals this evening who have moved on from heats this morning. We are still in a heavy block of training at the moment, so I think they have performed well today. As long as they swim down properly and look after themselves tonight, we will have a successful day again tomorrow.”
Finals Open 50m Breastroke, Cira Fletcher, 6th, 33:24
Finals Open 100m Butterfly, Milly Scotchbrook, 8th , 1:03.74
Finals Open 200m Backstroke, Michael Rees, 8th, 2:08.12
Finals Open 50m Freestyle, Henry Rennolls, 7th, 23.70
Finals Open 200m Breaststroke, Cira Fletcher, 6th, 2:37.89
Finals Men’s Open 4x100m Freestyle team, 5th, 3.39.00
Finals Women’s Open 4x100m Freestyle, 6th, 4.09.68
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Tomorrow, we move into the final day of the Championships with action across 6 sports and everything still to play/compete for. In the meantime, make sure you head over to our social channels to congratulate out students on their notable success.
You can follow the University of Nottingham’s progress in the BUCS Nationals on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds. There will also be regular updates on our BUCS Nationals website and social media channels.
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