2024 BUCS SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, November 15th – Sunday, November 17th
- Ponds Forge International Swimming Centre, Sheffield, England
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Draft Entries
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Results
- Livestream
The 2024 British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Short Course Championships began on Friday, November 15th with the 3-day competition taking place at Ponds Forge.
Swimmers are vying for individual titles but primarily for team points in their quest to come away with the men’s, women’s and overall team trophies.
As a refresher, BUCS points are awarded to the top 4 swimmers/teams; however, only the top 2 swimmers from each institution, or 1 team per institution for relay events, are eligible for BUCS points. If there are not enough eligible swimmers/teams in the top 4 to earn points, then the remaining points will be awarded to the next-best eligible swimmers/teams based on the rest finals or heats results.
Olympic finalist Freya Colbert did damage across 2 events to close out her campaign, with the 20-year-old clinching victories in the women’s 100m IM and 400m free.
In the former, Colbert led a 3-strong podium presence by Loughborough, stopping the clock in 1:00.33 for 100m IM gold. That held off teammates Lily Booker and Honey Osrin who settled for respective silver and bronze.
Booker clocked 1:01.80 while Osrin touched in 1:01.98.
In the 400m free, Colbert produced a winning effort of 4:02.32 to crush the field by over 7 seconds.
Swansea swimmer Aimee Monks produced 4:09.46 as the silver medalist and Loughborough’s Lucy Fox bagged bronze in 4:11.82.
For Colbert, her time checked in as a new lifetime best, overwriting the 4:02.38 logged at last year’s Swim England Winter Championships. She remains the 11th-fastest British woman in history in this event.
Olympian Laura Stephens topped the women’s 200m fly field, turning in a time of 2:07.65 to get to the wall over a second ahead of the competition.
18-year-old teammate Fox snagged silver in 2:08.86 while Shannon Stott of Sheffield Hallam rounded out the podium in 2:09.19.
Stephens’ personal best of 2:04.94 from 2018 keeps her ranked as GBR’s 4th-quickest performer to date.
Following up on his impressive 1500m victory, Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen made noise in the men’s 400m free to close out his championships.
Wiffen put up a winning effort of 3:43.22 to get to the wall narrowly ahead of runner-up Tyler Melbourne-Smith, also of Loughborough.
Melbourne-Smith secured silver in 3:43.51 and another Loughborough ace, Harry Wynne-Jones, collected bronze in 3:49.28.
Wiffen owns the Irish national record with the lifetime best of 3:35.47, which he notched en route to becoming European champion last year
Additional Notes
- 24-year-old Lewis Fraser of Swansea topped the men’s 100m IM field in 53.52, touching just .04 ahead of silver medalist Matthew Ward (53.53) and .05 ahead of bronze medalist Cam Brooker (53.57), both of Bath. Of note, Olympic finalist Max Litchfield was also in the mix, hitting 53.82 for 4th place.
- Josh Gammon, named to the British roster for next month’s Short Course World Championshps, was the man to beat in the 200m fly. Gammon clocked 1:55.35, well off his PB of 1:51.88 from last year, but enough to hold off Litchfield who settled for silver in 1:56.46 after his 100m IM. Loughborough teammate Charlie Hutchison bagged bronze in 1:58.19.
- Representing Loughborough, Polish swimmer Kornelia Fiedkiewicz struck gold in the women’s 50m free, hitting the sole tine of the field under the 25-second barrier in 24.78.
- Calvin Fry was the top 50m freestyler on the men’s side, hitting 21.67. That was enough to out-touch Leeds Beck’s Jordan Cooley who registered 21.72 while GBR Olympian Alex Cohoon also landed on the podium in 21.81 as the bronze emedalist.
- Lauren Cox delivered a time of 27.18 to win the women’s 50m back by over a second.
- Oliver Morgan of Birmingham was the men’s 50n back winner, punching 23.81 as the sole athlete under 24 seconds.
Can we see Wiffen rip a 4:04 500 yard free please