Loughborough Gets Off To Quick Start At BUCS LC C’ships

2018 BUCS LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• British Universities & Colleges Sport Championships (LCM)
• Friday, February 16th – Sunday, February 18th
• Ponds Forge, Sheffield
• Meet Central
• Live Results

The 2018 British Universities & Colleges Sport Championships swimming competition kicked off in Ponds Forge today, with the men’s and women’s distance events setting the tone for the 3-day meet. Loughborough won both the short course and long course championships in 2017 and will look to dominate once again, unless Edinburgh, Stirling or another lurking force can engage its depth and scrape enough points together to dethrone the reigning champs.

Alice Dearing already racked up points for the Loughborough squad right off the bat, however, winning the women’s 800m freestyle in 8:39.05. Although the 20-year-old led through about the 400m mark, World Championships swimmer Rosie Rudin started inching up on Dearing and actually overtook the lead through the stretch. It was Dearing’s final 50m split of 30.62 that dropped the hammer, shutting Rudin down to settle for silver in 8:39.19 in what boiled down to a 2-woman race.

For the men, Loughborough was successful as well in 21-year-old Toby Robinson in the 1500m free. He notched a time of 15:17.66 to take the title ahead of Tom Derbyshire and Sam Budd who touched in respective times of 15:21.82 and 15:52.78.

Action continues tomorrow where we’re slated to see the likes of Kathryn Greenslade, Luke Greenbank, Molly Renshaw and Ross Murdoch take to the pool in Sheffield.