2019 BUCS SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- November 15th-17th
- Ponds Forge ISC, Sheffield
- SCM
- Meet Info
- Entry List
- Swim Swam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Live Results
- Live Stream
The 2019 British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Short Course Championships concluded tonight, but not before the University of Stirling put up a valiant fight against the University of Loughborough. Although Loughborough came away with the team title yet again, their 16th consecutive, Stirling gathered a solid amount of points to put the combined team title at risk.
Top 5 Teams in Combined Points as of 3:15 pm Local Time
| Team | Place | Points |
| Loughborough | 1 | 392 |
| Stirling | 2 | 313 |
| Edinburgh | 3 | 282 |
| Bath | 4 | 175 |
| ManchesterMetropolitan | 5 | 108 |
Among the Stirling standouts was Duncan Scott, the two-time Olympic silver medalist who was in the water nearly 20 times over the course of this 3-day meet. As we reported, he saved his best for (almost) last, clocking a new 200m fly Scottish national record tonight in a time of 1:54.43. You can read more about his gold medal-worthy swim here.
Scott also made it happen in the men’s 200m IM, with the 22-year-old producing a winning effort of 1:54.35 to clear Joe Litchfield of Loughborough who touched in 1:57.94 for silver. Litchfield had finished with the silver behind Scott in the 2fly as well, punching a time of 1:54.72.
French woman Marie Wattel, swimming for Loughborough here, clinched her 3rd and 4th individual titles of the meet. She first won the 100m free in a mark of 52.71 to represent the only finalist under the 53-second threshold. Splitting 25.49/27.22, Wattel’s time was within half a second of her lifetime best of 52.25 notched for 6th place at the 2017 European Short Course Championships.
Wattel was also successful in the women’s 50m fly tonight, reaping gold in 25.82. She put up a career-fastest outing of 25.33 just recently at the International Swimming League (ISL) competition in Budapest.
Craig Benson got on the board for Stirling in the men’s 100m breast, with the two-time Olympian topping the field in a time of 58.95 to win by over a second.
Candice Hall of Loughborough was the clear winner in the women’s 200m IM, clocking a winning effort of 2:10.12 to get to the wall over 3 seconds ahead of her competitors.
The women’s 200m fly saw Scottish national record holder Keanna MacInnes take the top prize in 2:09.00, keeping Sheffield Hallam’s Amy Bell at bay. Bell was the only other swimmer to dip under the 2:10 barrier, securing silver in 2:09.57.
MacInnes owns the Scottish record in this 2fly event with the 2:07.21 delivered at the 2018 Scottish National Championships.
For the meet’s final relays, Loughborough snagged the women’s medley relay title in a time of 1:46.59. Splits for the squad were as follows: Emily Crane 26.94, Imogen Clark 29.52, Marie Wattel 25.21 and Emily Barclay 24.92.
The men’s edition saw Stirling slide into the gold medal spot, courtesy of Scott’s wicked-fast anchor of 20.93. Additional team members’ splits that gave Stirling the winning time of 1:35.99 over Loughborough included 24.59 from Martyn Walton, 26.67 from Craig Benson, and 23.80 from Scott McLay.
Additional Winners:
- Jack Thorpe gave his Edinburgh team some points via his 48.38 100m free win over David Cumberlidge. The latter hit the wall in 48.52, while Stirling’s Craig McLean rounded out the top 3 in 48.69.
- Britain’s 3rd fastest SCM 100 breaststroker of all-time, Imogen Clark, busted out an effort of 1:06.02 for the win in that event, while teammate Megab Morrison produced a new personal best of 1:06.77 to make it a 1-2 Loughborough finish.
- The women’s 100m back saw Lucy Hope surge to the wall in 59.39, just .06 ahead of runner-up Emily Crane.
- Luke Greenbank secured the 100m back victory in a time of 51.98. He is Britan’s 3rd fastest performer in history with his lifetime best of 50.88 from 2018.
Great competition this weekend; Joe Litchfield looks to have a chance of making the Olympic team – I’d love to see him and Max make it together.
A few catches from across the country…
Freya Anderson swam some big PBs (24.5/52.5/1.54.1) at her first meet of the season. Versatile youngster to watch – Evie Dilley (2006). 4.52 400IM, 8.49 800free, 1.01 100bk, 2.12 200bk, 2.03 200fr in Stockport.
I really like Joe Litchfield, but what event do you see him qualifying for? 100m backstroke best shot I guess? But he still seems a long way off. Hope I’m wrong though!
I think I’ve been excited about Anderson’s progress for a good few years now aha! She’s progressed solidly but do you think this year will be the year where she breaks Fran’s 100m free record? Ideally she’d have her WOW moment this year and drop a shed load of time
Joe; 200IM or 100bk yeah. He is putting together all the ingredients: Great free, fly and back and the breast is solid. Max’s 200 hasnt recovered fron his injury as well as his 400 as yet – If he comes back to his best, he’ll make the team, but Joe looks very ready to drop a chunk from his IM. I think Dean had his eyes more on freestyle going for towards Tokyo too.
Freya struggles a little SCM because of her height and flexibility, so this is positive yeah. Needs to find half a secons to take Fran’s record, no easy task. Her 50 looked much better this weekend though and she’s always an absolute weapon on the backhalf…… Read more »
Joe L is an excellent UW swimmer but his stroke technique does not seem to hold up in LCM. He was being caught up on the swim so he’ll be playing catch up in the bigger pool. 100Bk best event for him given lack of depth/quality
He set LCM PBs of 52s fly, 54s back, 1.48s free, 64s breast, 1.59s IM this year and will still only 21 at trials. He has improved a lot at Loughborough quite quickly and may well continue that.
He was only getting caught up on the swim because he literally had 16 races across 2 days of racing.
Max will be fine, along with any other injured or unwell British swimmer – the doctors aren’t afraid to give the necessary medication or injections for any affliction and sign it off with another one of those nice friendly TUEs. And it’s only a mere coincidence that they need to do so the day before the race and that cycling doctors for Team GB do the exact same thing.