Team Newcastle claim points aplenty at BUCS Nationals

As Newcastle Rowing cleaned house on the River Tyne, legions of Newcastle athletes made the pilgrimage southward to Sheffield to tackle BUCS Nationals, a three-day festival of student sport featuring competition in athletics, badminton, climbing, fencing, karate, and swimming, all with prized BUCS points up for grabs.

Newcastle University was represented in every category contested and brought a range of spoils back up north, with the points won helping to cement our place in overall BUCS standings. Team Newcastle currently sits comfortably in sixth place with 3115 points, 414 points adrift of fifth-placed University of Edinburgh and 65 points clear of Nottingham Trent, who sit seventh.

Kicking off the weekends’ festivities was fencing. Already enjoying a successful season, the Blades improved their fortunes once again, taking nine competitors to Sheffield. It was the women who produced the team’s best results, with Erin Pedler finishing 5^th in the women’s epee standings. It was Ellen Robbins Wilkinson who secured Newcastle's first medal of the weekend, though, finishing tied for third in the sabre category to secure a bronze medal.

Enjoying similar success was karate, where Ho Lam Tsang brought home another bronze medal in Novice Kata. The team failed to replicate her success, though, finishing with just four points, enough to match Oxford, Cambridge, and Bath in a four way tie for 23^rd place.

Athletics improved slightly on that record, appearing in four finals to finish 26th place overall, winning eight BUCS points. Charlotte Earl finished 10^th in the triple jump with a score of 11.19m, and was followed by an eighth-place finish from Jacqueline Penn in the 3000m event, clocking a season-best time of 10:02.46. Aidan O’Brien finished seventh in the 800m (2:03.01), before Etienne Maughan recorded the team’s best result of the weekend, finishing fourth in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.36s, a personal best.

Newcastle’s best results of the weekend came in climbing, as Louise Flockhart claimed the women’s gold medal, beating out contenders from Sheffield, Stirling, and Strathclyde. Team Newcastle finished third overall in both the men’s and women’s standings, charting 10 BUCS points each.

Speaking after the event, Athletic Union Officer Kimiko Cheng said that “I feel very lucky to be part of a team that is so supportive of each other and to have witnessed firsthand some medal winning performances. Everyone who took part should be so proud of themselves.”

These results will embolden Team Newcastle as it prepares for Varsity, the annual tournament to decide which school is superior: Newcastle or Northumbria. The 2024 edition will consist of 72 events in total, most of which will take place on March 22.