The British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Short Course Championships are fast-approaching, scheduled for November 13th-15th at Ponds Forge in Sheffield. The event marks the BUCS’ first competition of the 2015-16 swim season and has historically been one of the largest events in terms of number of entrants.
Meet Information
Program of Events
Time Schedule
Entrants’ Table (Psych Sheets)
The action transpires on Friday, November 13th beginning at 6pm local, while Saturday and Sunday host sessions at 9:30am, 2pm and 6pm local each day.
Ever-consistent Loughborough University will be looking to defend its 2013-14 title and make it a solid 12 years that they will have sat upon the BUCS throne. However, the University of Stirling will do its best to stand in their way, bringing big-time players Duncan Scott and Craig Benson to the championships. Scott is a two-time individual gold medal winner at this year’s inaugural European Games, while Benson just won a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke at the Dubai World Cup.
Last year’s meet saw Cardiff’s Ieuan Lloyd and Sheffield’s Rebecca Turner swim away with the respective Male and Female Top Performer Awards, while swimmers Ben Proud, Adam Barrett and Aimee Wilmott also proved to be strong contenders.
Additional teams scheduled to be in attendance include Exeter, Glasgow, University of Bath, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Liverpool, Sheffield and Plymouth, among several others.
As large as this meet appears, however, it is actually quite small compared to the United States’ nearest comparable meet, the NCAA Championships. As such, several within the UK swimming community point to the lack of emphasis on University swimming within their nation as to a possible reason why, historically, some ‘good’ British swimmers have failed to move on to the ‘great’ level, according to the UK blog “Fast Off the Blocks”
In Fast Off the Blocks‘ recent piece on the subject of BUCS swimming, Cameron Brodie of Stirling University, a swimmer who arrived back in Britain after training with the University of Florida, said “The camaraderie and team spirit is evident in everything they [American college swimmers] do. Little things like wearing club colours and staying until your teammate has finished their race play a big part in creating an atmosphere that is lacking at BUCS competitions. That doesn’t mean we are any less competitive though. At Stirling, we are definitely looking to beat Loughborough at any opportunity we can.”
Former swimmer for Michigan, Ian Hulme, who now coaches at Loughborough echoes Brodie’s thoughts, indicating that“The NCAA competitions bring some of the most exciting races in the world. The level of competition here just isn’t the same.”