Loughborough Races To BUCS Long Course Championship Title

2017 BUCS LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• British Universities & Colleges Sport Championships (LCM)
• Friday, February 17th – Sunday, February 19th
• Ponds Forge, Sheffield
• Meet Central
• Entry Lists
• Meet Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results

As with the short course version of this event last November, Loughborough University claimed the overall team title at the 2017 British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) Championships this weekend in Sheffield. Multiple records fell over the course of the 3-day event, with swift swims produced by special Olympic guests.

Final Top 3 Teams Combined

1. Loughborough – 295
2. Edinburgh – 269
3. Bath – 231

Yesterday we saw reigning 200m freestyle world champion James Guy and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Adam Peaty rattle the world rankings racing at the Ponds Forge pool, while today two-time silver medalist in Rio Jaz Carlin and 200m IM Olympic silver medalist Siobhan-Marie O’Connor gave us another show. For Carlin, having only been back in the water a couple of months, the Bath swimmer scored 6th place out of the prelims with a modest 100m freestyle time of 57.06, followed by a more convincing prelims win in the 400m freestyle. In the latter event, Carlin touched in 4:14.64, solid given where the 26-year-old is at trainingwise. For perspective, Carlin won silver in Rio in 4:01.23.

O’Connor easily outpaced the AM field in her specialty, the 200m IM, stopping the clock in a mark of 2:12.88. That time checks in on the top 10 performances in the world so far this season, overtaking Aimmee Willmott’s 2:13.03 from the Euro Meet as GBR’s top time.

For Guy, he took on one of his newer events this morning, the men’s 200m butterfly. Having recently moved to Bath as his new training home, Guy has only been back in the water since January, which resulted in an overall time this morning of 1:58.63. Although that mark is well outside the top 10 times in the world, currently led by Japan’s Masato Sakai in 1:54.53, Guy’s result represents the 2nd fastest of his career. That certainly bodes well for the 21-year-old as he kicks off his quadrennial.

Additional ‘special guest’ appearances were made by Stephen Milne who earned victories in both the 100m freestyle (50.62) as well as the 400m freestyle (3:50.21). Christopher Walker-Hebborn raced again today as well, clocking a time of 55.61 in the 100m backstroke.

As for the student-athlete section, Loughborough’s Sarah Vasey got the job done in a big way in the women’s 100m breaststroke, breaking the meet record twice over the course of today’s two sessions. Her speedy morning swim of 1:08.34 was reduced even further, as Vasey scorched the field in a new meet record of 1:07.78.

Loughborough teammate Charlotte Atkinson also re-wrote the meet history book in the women’s 200m butterfly, finishing in 2:09.93 for the comfortable win. That smashes her own personal best of 2:11.29, a time she only earned earlier this month at the McCullagh Memorial in Ireland. Atkinsons’s career-best outing today sneaks her into the women’s top 10 world rankings so far this season.

The Litchfield brothers from Sheffield-Hallum went 1-2 in the sprint IM event, just as they did yesterday in the 400m IM. Elder brother Max Litchfield led the way, notching a mark of 2:00.07, which established a new BUCS meet record for the 22-year-old. The result also represents the 2nd-fastest time of Max’s career, with his personal best resting just a tad faster at 1:59.94 from the 2015 World University Games.