Seven sports, 135 athletes, 26 Medals- Not a bad time to be a Bath student in Sheffield! Myself and Owen (sports exec Media) were given the opportunity to come along to BUCS Nationals 2020 and what an experience it was! Nail-biting races, fights and rallies, calculated climbs and powerful jumps, vaults and throws- this weekend was a captivating one for those watching the blue and gold!
From seasoned scholars to those in their first year of their chosen disciplines, the weekend was an incredible showcase of the diverse competitive sporting journeys that have been supported by the sports clubs here at Bath. It was amazing to see the culmination of so much hard work from our athletes and their support networks, helping them to get to where they are now.
Some hugely memorable moments including Remi’s gold-winning roll crossing the finish line in the 1,500m, a nail-biting men’s team final in the judo, and a hard fought Badminton semi-final for Molly and Katie in the Womens doubles.
But it wasn’t just the performances on the track/mat/court etc that caught my eye. The family-feel was radiated by our Bath lot, despite the majority of the competitions being individual, rather than team- those that weren’t playing were supporting, giving insight, and bringing water and food to their teammates. It’s always great to see how sport under the same Bath banner can bring people together, and it made the weekend an absolute pleasure to watch unfold!
Here are a few submissions from some of our sporting representatives about the weekend:
Alessandro Giovannone, Fencing: ‘A total of 17 fencers made the journey to Sheffield, with strong showings across all six individual events. Highlights included quarter final appearances by both Ned Dreamer and Caspian Watt, with a glut of hard-fought fights coming from teammates elsewhere in the competitions. The teams now return to Bath emboldened and ready to defend their positions in their respective cup tournaments.’
Joshua Hong, Badminton: ‘Bath Badminton represented well in all 5 eventsof the Nationals. Bath players got to at least the top 8 in 4/5 disciplines; with 2 pairs making it onto the podium. Katie Scott and Molly Chapman won bronze in the Women's Doubles. Will Jones and Joshua Hong won Bronze in the Mens Doubles.’
Asuka Peace, Karate: ‘Karate came away with 6 medals, 1 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronzes. On day one, our gold medal came in novice Kata (forms) with Sophie Atkinson improving on her 2nd place finish from last year. Day one also saw the team events, with the men's kumite (fighting) team (who won gold last year) narrowly missing out on a medal. The women's kumite team (Asuka Peace, Nicole Mak, Aarthi Karunakaran, Martine Tran) managed to improve on last years medalless result by claiming Bronze in a battle against Cambridge. On day two, the novices really showed up, claiming a silver and two bronzes. Sophie built on her kata success, losing out in the finals to earn silver in womens heavyweight kumite. The two bronzes came to Nicolas Robinson and Vani Ragunathan, both of whom only started karate in Semester 1, in the men's and women's middle weight categories respectively. Finally, Seb Mendez lost out on a place in the finals on decision however came back through to win himself a bronze medal in the senior kumite -84kg category. Overall a good weekend, with much experience gained and some very high level karate.’
Now, BUCS Nationals were only a fraction of the sport that we were involved in over this weekend! There were a huge number of competitions and tournaments, with hundreds more students representing Bath in every corner of the UK!
Taekwondo sent 8 competitors to Nottingham. The team collected a whopping 8 medals: 7 gold, 1 bronze! One of the Bath competitors, Ryan Simpson, also qualified for the EUSA 2020 Combat Games, having consistently won golds in A Class sparring!
Bath Jets took a massive cohort of varying experience to nationals, collecting gold and bronze in the Level 2 Co-Ed group stunt and Level 3 Co-Ed group stunt respectively, as well as loads of high finishes in 11 different disciplines. A special shoutout to their first year students, for many of whom this was their first taste of competitive cheer, and the team of volunteer coaches that worked tirelessly for this event.
Ultimate Men’s 1sts went to Edinburgh for indoor nationals, a week after the ladies battled Glasgow for theirs. Unlucky to be knocked out in the quarter finals, the guys took 7th place.
Lacrosse took 3 teams to Brunel for the Lacrosse 6’s. Their mens teams came in 3rd in the cup and 2nd in the plate, and the ladies took 3rd in the cup!
Well done to everyone for all their performances over an incredible weekend!