2026 BUCS LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, February 13th – Sunday, February 15th
- Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield, England
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Draft Entries
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Live Results
The 2026 British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Long Course Championships wrapped up last night at the storied Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England.
University of Stirling’s Angharad Evans successfully completed her sweep of the women’s breaststroke discipline, wrangling up the victory in the 200m event on the final night of action.
23-year-old Evans stopped the clock at a time of 2:24.72, beating her competitors by just under four seconds in the process.
Loughborough’s Sienna Robinson was next to the wall in 2:24.72 and Anna Morgan produced 2:29.40 for the bronze after having clinched silver in the 50m and 100m earlier in the competition.
Evans’ time here now ranks her 7th in the world on the season.
2025-2026 LCM Women 200 BREAST
Evans
2:19.70
| 2 | Evgenia Chikunova | RUS | 2:20.59 | 06/09 |
| 3 | Kate Douglass | USA | 2:20.86 | 12/06 |
| 4 | Mona McSharry | IRL | 2:22.22 | 04/10 |
| 5 | Lisa ANGIOLINI | ITA | 2:22.28 | 04/15 |
Edinburgh got on the board, courtesy of Ciara Schlosshan‘s strong performance in the women’s 200m butterfly.
25-year-old Schlosshan turned in a time of 2:08.60 to represent one of two performers who dipped under the 2:10 barrier in the final.
Joining her was Loughborough’s Lucy Fox, who registered 2:09.80 while Shannon Stott rounded out the podium in 2:10.70.
As for Schlosshan, her outing earned her a shiny new lifetime best, overtaking her former PB of 2:09.35. That earlier mark was scored at last year’s World University Games, where she placed 5th overall. Schlosshan’s effort here now renders her GBR’s 11th-swiftest swimmer of all time in this event.
On the men’s side, Jack Skerry led a Bath onslaught in the 50m backstroke, ripping a time of 25.05 to take the gold.
Teammates Cam Brooker and Matthew Ward joined him on the podium, with the former hitting 25.22. to the latter’s very close result of 25.25.
Skerry’s performance overtook his former PB of 25.11 from last year’s European U23 Championships and he now ranks as GBR’s 10th-quickest 50m backstroker in history.
Loughborough ace Tyler Melbourne-Smith added another piece of hardware to his haul, grabbing gold in the 400m freestyle.
The 21-year-old touched in 3:51.02 as the decisive victor, with teammate Sean McCann snagging silver in 3:54.81 and Luke Hornsey bagging the bronze in 3:56.25.
Melbourne-Smith’s best-ever outing remains at the 3:48.14 from last December’s Swim Wales Winter Championships.
Additional Notes
- Manchester’s Ed Mildred got the job done in the men’s 200m butterfly, reaping the sole time of the pack under the 2:00 threshold. He touched the wall first in 1:58.89 followed by Olympic veteran Max Litchfield who logged 2:00.78 for Loughborough. Bath’s Hendrik Van Der Leest also landed on the podium in 2:01.23 for 3rd place.
- The men’s 200m breast saw Finn Kemp turn in a time of 2:13.77 to earn the top spot by over a second. That was a big-time personal best for the man who represents Luxembourg internationally, destroying his previous PB of 2:15.46 from just this past January at the Euro Meet.
Does anyone know if Ciara is representing England or Scotland at the commonwealth games as she is English (like Leah) but goes to school in Scotland?
Scottish Swimming recognized her as a Scottish Record breaker last year, so that’s my guess. She hasn’t been announced yet though – Scotland is slowly dripping their roster out.
Doesn’t make sense to me to be able to change your nationality to your uni country if true.
Because citizenship is ‘British’ for English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish*, eligibility is a touch confusing. There are three main ways…
Personally, I find the last one a bit wishy-washy because, as you say, merely attending University somewhere should not make you eligible to represent said country, but when we all share the same citizenship there has to be some way of regulating eligibility and this seems to have been where they’ve landed.
It’s similarly confusing in Football – Islanders (Jersey, Guernsey) are only eligible to represent England.
There’s a recent podcast featuring Ciara where she gives a good explanation of this very point. Propulsion Swimming Podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ciara-schlosshan-how-being-a-student-athlete-is/id1492934826?i=1000749386923