Daniel Wiffen & James Guy Among Olympians Making Waves At 2025 BUCS LC Championships

2025 BUCS LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, February 14th – Sunday, February 16th
• Ponds Forge International Swimming Centre, Sheffield, England
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Meet Central
• Draft Entries
• Live Results
• Livestream

The 2025 British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Long Course Championships kicked off today with plenty of star power competing at the Ponds Forge International Swimming Centre. Athletes representing Loughborough, Stirling, Edinburgh and beyond are diving in over the course of the 3-day affair, vying for team points.

As a refresher, in each event, only the fastest individual from each institution will score points. Individual events will be scored by 1st place being awarded 20 points, 2nd place 19 points, continuing with a decreasing points scale for subsequently ranked placings in the order of 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, etc. down to 1 point.

While not a selection meet, this competition serves as an important benchmark ahead of the all-important British Swimming Championships on the calendar for April 15th-20th. That meet represents the sole qualification opportunity for swimmers not already qualified for this year’s World Championships.

Morning Heats

Several of the high-profile athletes are racing as ‘guests’ which means they can compete in the heats of each event but not in the finals, thus not contributing to the overall point score.

Olympian Freya Anderson fell into this category, taking on the women’s 200m free where she scored the top time of the morning in 2:00.90.

Olympic multi-medalist James Guy led the morning heats of the men’s 200m free, clocking a time of 1:47.65 to get his season underway

This represented Guy’s first 200m free since Paris where he and teammates Duncan Scott, Matt Richards and Tom Dean made history repeating as men’s 4x200m free relay gold medalists.

Guy has been in the water already in 2025, racing at the City of Sheffield Winter Meet last month. There he notched a time of 3:48.91 in his first performance in that distance since the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Additional morning swims included:

• Holly Hibbott – 2:02.47, women’s 200 free
• Medi Harris – 2:03.56, women’s 200m free; 1:00.73, women’s 100m fly
• Joe Litchfield – 1:51.03, men’s 200m free; 54.94, men’s 100m fly
• Luke Greenbank – 55.90, men’s 100m back
• Abbie Wood – 59.39, women’s 100m fly; 2:11.23, women’s 200m IM
• Jacob Peters – 53.87, men’s 100m fly
• Josh Kirlew – 54.89, men’s 100m fly

Night Finals

We reported how 22-year-old Oliver Morgan of Birmingham fired off a monster 52.71 near-lifetime best to take the men’s 100m backstroke.

The 2024 Olympian split 25.64/27.07 to turn in a final time of 52.71 for the gold, a mark only .01 off his own lifetime best and British national record of 52.70.

• Oliver Morgan Scorches 52.71 100 Back at BUCS, Just .01 Outside British Record

22-year-old Angharad Evans of Stirling put her breaststroking prowess on display, reaping gold in the women’s 50m breaststroke in a time of 30.98.

She reached the wall with a small advantage over Edinburgh’s Anna Morgan who settled for silver in 31.30 while Loughborough’s Sienna Robinson rounded out the podium in 31.79.

Evans’ personal best in this sprint remains at the 30.55 notched at last year’s AP Race International, a performance which rendered her Great Britain’s 4th-quickest performer ever.

The men’s 50m breast final saw Edinburgh’s Archie Goodburn beat the pack, registering a time of 27.55 for gold.

That held off Loughborough’s Greg Butler and Swansea’s Panayiotis Panaretos who scored respective silver and bronze. Butler clocked 27.79 to Panaretos’ 28.25. Of note, Paris Olympic freestyle relay swimmer Alex Cohoon put up 28.27 for 4th place.

Goodburn’s gold is an especially impressive feat given the fact the 24-year-old is battling inoperable brain tumors, which he announced last summer.

World Championships gold medalist Freya Colbert topped the women’s 200m free podium in tonight’s final, turning in a time of 1:58.27 to beat the field by over a second.

Manchester’s Leah Schlosshan was next to the wall in 1:59.57 while Bath’s Jemima Hall bagged bronze in 2:01.14.

On the men’s side, 20-year-old Tyler Melbourne-Smith of Loughborough got it done for gold in 1:48.93, a performance representing the 2nd-best time of his career.

Melbourne-Smith has been as speedy as 1:47.54 in this event, a time he posted at last year’s British Summer Championships.

Ireland’s Olympic gold medalist Daniel Wiffen was utterly dominant in the men’s 1500m free, producing a winning effort of 15:03.20.

That got the 24-year-old to the wall over 30 seconds ahead of his twin brother and Cal commit Nathan Wiffen who settled for silver in 15:33.73. Loughborough teammate Harry Wynne-Jones also landed on the podium in 15:39.37 for bronze.

For comparison, Daniel Wiffen ripped a 14:42.05 scorcher at this same competition last year. However, his 15:03.20 now ranks him the #2 performer in the world this season, sitting only behind American Bobby Finke who owns the top time in 14:58.68 from last month.

Additional Winners

• Loughborough’s Lauren Cox got her hand on the wall first in the women’s 100m back, posting 1:00.31 to clear the field by just under a second.
• Lucy Grieve of Stirling clocked a time of 58.34 as the winner of the women’s 100m fly, a time within .03 of her personal best of 58.31 from last year’s Olympic Trials.
• Ed Mildred of Manchester got it done for gold in the men’s 100m fly, hitting a result of 52.53. Josh Gammon of Bath was also under the 53-second barrier in 52.96 while Edinburgh’s Brodie Gordon-Gibson hit 54.19 for bronze.
• The women’s 200m IM saw Stirling’s Katie Shanahan get the edge over 400m IM world champion Freya Colbert. The former logged 2:10.88 to the latter’s 2:11.87 while Manchester’s Leah Schlosshan, the European Junior Championships gold medalist in this event in both 2022 and 2023, posted 2:14.93 for bronze.
• Olympic finalist Max Litchfield, 30, clocked 2:01.48 to win the men’s 200m IM.
• Leah Crisp touched in 16:30.19 to take the women’s 1500m free by 17 seconds.