Team Newcastle take on BUCS Nationals in Sheffield

It was a busy weekend for some of our students on Friday 23rd - Sunday 25 February as they made the journey down to Sheffield for this year's BUCS Nationals competition!

With students representing Athletics, Swimming and Climbing, karate, badminton and fencing there was plenty of competition to get behind and support.

With over 100 students representing the university across the 6 sports, there was a great array of talent from all disciplines on display and plenty of performances to be proud of! Special mentions have to go to our swimming and climbing clubs where GB climber Louise Flockhart took home a gold medal in the individual climbing event and to Erin Omeara made the 100m freestyle swimming final.

Fencing

There were 9 Newcastle representatives in the fencing competition over the weekend, starting on Friday with Sam Tate competing in the Men’s epee, Ellen Robbins Wilkinson and Ruby Luck competing in the Women’s sabre, with Ellen bringing home a bronze medal in her discipline. Saturday saw Jade Meyer place 17th in Women’s foil which was a great finish for her! On Sunday, Wiktor Stachera, Billy Levick and Chris Swaddling competed in the Men’s foil all finishing in the top 100, with Josie Fernau and Erin Pedler competing in the Women’s epee.

As a club they were extremely proud of their achievements, giving a special shoutout to Ellen for winning the bronze medal in Women’s sabre in a really strong field of competitors!

Athletics

The athletics competition was described as a “huge success” for Newcastle by their club president, as they returned home with 14 new Personal Bests, and 6 athletes reaching the finals of their respective events.

Huge shout-outs go to Etienne Maughan placing 4th in the country for 60m hurdles, Jacky Penn for placing 8th in the 3000m and Aidan O’Brien for placing 7th in the 800m. All of them brought back valuable BUCS points to once again show athletics is establishing itself as a strong sport within the Uni.

Moving into the outdoor season and BUCS Outdoors in May, the club will take this momentum to secure more points, more finals and more PBs. The club president is keen to keep up this success:

“It’s only a matter of time before another Gold Medal is around one of our athlete's necks, until then you’ll find us practising our craft in and around a 400m oval.”

Karate

The karate competition saw 13 team Newcastle athletes competing, with them entering their first team kata at BUCS in several years. Day 1 saw Kiana winning a bronze medal in Novice Kata, Elliot and Chloe both put in great performances in Intermediate Kata, and Rachel did excellent in Senior Kata, all against some experienced competitors! Going into the Sunday, Cameron gave it his all in three very close fights in Novice Kumite, and Chloe and Rachel both held their own against some very experienced competitors in Senior Kumite. There were some great performances from the club over the weekend in several different disciplines - well done everyone!

Badminton

The badminton club took players from both men’s and women’s first teams to compete in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, with hopes of picking up some medals along the way.

Starting on Friday morning, with the men’s singles. Neville Baptist Luaran saw off three opponents with relative ease, putting him through to the main draw. As well as Tom Hunt and Alex Speakman turning out victorious in their first-round singles matches. Tom fought hard in his second game but narrowly missed out on victory; Alex on the other hand came out a winner in a very evenly matched tie putting him through to round three, where he was edged out by a player from Queen Mary.

Friday's play also saw the start of the mixed doubles with Jack Thorpe and Louise Ola competitive against a strong Manchester pair and Alex Dalton and Justine Ng facing a strong pair from Birmingham. Those defeats left Luke Davies and Ciara Aylott as the only remaining Newcastle representatives in the mixed. After receiving a bye in round one, the pair dispatched their second-round opponents in a tightly fought three-end game, before narrowly being beaten in the third end by a very strong Exeter Pair.

Saturday saw the start of the women’s singles competition where three Newcastle representatives were hopeful of making some headway in the competition. Sasha Shliakhova, Venus Chu, and Jia Zhang all battled hard in their first-round matches. The girls took to the doubles court later on in the morning and into the afternoon, with Justine and Venus sweeping aside their first-round opposition before falling to a Cambridge pair in round two. The other two pairs, consisting of Sasha Shilakhova and Louise Ola, and Ciara Aylott and Katie Boyce showed great spirit in their BUCS Individuals debut, but just fell short in round one.

The men's doubles tournament was cut short due to an injury from Neville Baptist Lauran in the previous day of competition, with his partner Luke Davies having to withdraw from the competition also. Although this was incredibly disappointing for the hopeful seeds, both players continue to show great support, something all players are incredibly grateful for!

The remaining pairs emerged victorious from their round one fixtures, although the score lines suggest in remarkably different styles. Alex and Alex secured a rarity in badminton, winning 21-0 in their second end, with Jack and Tom’s game ending with a tighter scoreline of 21-18. The second round was where Jack and Tom’s run ended, drawing a player seeded in singles and previously representing England was always going to be a tough ask for the boys. Alex and Alex, on the other hand, continued their run of form and saw off a pair from Leeds, before falling short in their third-round match.

All in all, it was a successful weekend for Newcastle Badminton, seeing over 20 members playing and supporting throughout the weekend - well done everyone!

Climbing

Lastly, moving onto the climbing competition, the club took 6 competitors down to Sheffield competing in both individual and team events. With GB climber Louise Folckhart securing an individual gold medal and both the mens and women’s teams placing third overall, it was a success all round on the climbing front for Team Newcastle!

BUCS Nationals is always a weekend the university looks forward to and Head of Sport Fraser was extremely proud of the performances that were put on display:

“It was great to see Newcastle having around 100 students representing the University across the 6 sports with some fantastic results. The gold medal from sports scholar Louise Flockhart in the climbing was a highlight as well as a silver for the men’s team in the same sport. Congratulations to Ellen Robbin-Wilkinson for her Bronze in fencing and also to Luciano Zanuni in the Karate. A massive well done to all our student-athletes for doing so well and representing themselves and the University with so much pride.”

The weekend was a success and it was great to see some of our students involved in such a high level of competition. We are extremely proud of all of our student-athletes who have represented the university in such a great manner. Well done everyone, we can’t wait to see you all do it again next year!