2016 BUCS Championships
- November 11th-13th, 2016
- British Universities & Colleges Sport Championiship
- Ponds Forge, Sheffield
- 25m (Short Course Meters)
- Meet Central
British star Aimee Willmott got her first taste of the Olympics last year when she swam the 200 fly and 400 IM in Rio. The meet culminated in a 7th-place finish in the 400 IM.
Willmott will now turn another chapter in her life in her final year of studying at the University of East London, and her final short course meters BUCS Championship.
She trains at the London Performance Aquatic Centre will attending school, and is one of the biggest stars in attendance at this year’s championship. Her presence will receive added attention, as this year’s BUCS Short Course Championships falls within ‘This BUCS Girl Can’ week of action (7-13 November). The week of action has sought to increasingly engage universities, and their students, with Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign, as BUCS continues to champion inclusive and accessible university sport.
“This Girl Can is an amazing campaign and it’s so important to get women into sport, especially girls at a young age. There are so many barriers in place so to show women can be tough is fab.
“Normally the men shine at BUCS but its quite nice doing lots of event and giving them a run for their money. I’m the only girl representing UEL so it’s nice doing it for the girls, as they say,” adds Aimee.
Willmott is entered in 8 individual events, highlighting the versatility it takes to be a world-class 400 IMer: the 200 free, 400 free, 100 back, 200 back, 100 fly, 200 fly, 200 breast, and 400 IM.
The meet has received over 1,700 entries, including 24 para-swimmers.
Among the other big names:
- Olympic silver medalist Duncan Scott of Stirling, who medaled in Rio as part of Britain’s 800 free and 400 medley relays.
- Craig Benson, who scored a gold medal at the 2016 European Championships in a mixed medley relay, and who is the BUCS record holder in all three breaststroke distances.
- James Disney-May, formerly a standout at Auburn in the American University system, will represent the London School of Economics (LSE) in the 50 back, 50 free, and 100 free.
- Ross Murdoch, another Stirling swimmer, is the defending European and Commonwealth Games Champion in the long course 200 breaststroke. He finished 11th in the 100 breaststroke at the 2016 Olympics, and will swim the 50, 100, and 200 at this year’s BUCS Championship.
- Kathleen Dawson, another Sterling swimmer, who is the Scottish National Record holder in the 50, 100, and 200 backstroke in long course, plus the 50 and 100 backstroke in short course. She’ll swim all three backstrokes, plus the 50, 100, and 200 freestyles, at this year’s BUCS Championships.
Loughborough, the dominant team in BUCS both in swimming and in athletics in general, enters the meet on 12 consecutive BUCS team titles. Stirling, the team that includes Scott, Murdoch, Dawson and Benson, has been closing the gap though, and last year took runner-up at this meet with 258 to Loughborough’s 367. Another Scottish team, Edinburgh, was 3rd with 230 points.