2021 BUCS SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, November 19th – Sunday, November 21st
- Ponds Forge, Sheffield, England
- SCM (25m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Event Site
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Entries
- Results
Just as Greek swimmer Andreas Vazaios wreaked havoc across the men’s events for his squad of Loughborough, his women’s events counterpart Louise Hansson also did major damage to close out these British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Short Course Championships.
25-year-old Hansson of Sweden, who joined Loughborough last year as a graduate student, dominated day 3 with decisive wins across the 100m free, 50m fly and 100m back.
First, in the 100m free, Hansson stopped the clock in a mark of 53.30, beating the field by over 2 seconds. Opening in 25.60 and closing in 27.70, Hansson came within striking distance of her own lifetime best in this event. That mark remains at the 53.03 she logged back in 2015 as just a 19-year-old.
Hansson’s next victim here in Sheffield came in the 50m fly, where the versatile ace scorched the field in a mark of 25.79. Although she owns a personal best of 25.19 as Sweden’s 3rd fastest woman of all time in the event, her performance here was enough to grab a second gold for Loughborough in the only sub-26 second outing of the pack.
Finally, in the women’s 100m back, Hansson indeed won, albeit by a much slighter margin. Hansson produced a winning effort of 57.44, just out-touching Swansea’s Medi Harris by a fingernail. 19-year-old Harris settled for silver in 57.48 as the only other swimmer to dip under the 58-second threshold.
All told, Vazaios and Hansson collectively reaped 18 gold medals and broke 10 BUCS Records to ultimately be named the Men’s and Women’s Performance Overall Championships of the 3-day meet. Loughborough once again brought home the BUCS Short Course Championships trophy as the overall team winner, as well as the top team for the men’s and then for the women’s separately.
Overall Team Points
| Loughborough | 1 | 391 |
| Stirling | 2 | 263 |
| Edinburgh | 3 | 249 |
| Swansea | 4 | 226 |
| Bath | 5 | 225 |
Men’s Points
| Loughborough | 195 |
| Bath | 138 |
| Stirling | 123 |
| Edinburgh | 100 |
| Birmingham | 21 |
Women’s Points
| Loughborough | 196 |
| Bath | 87 |
| Stirling | 140 |
| Edinburgh | 149 |
| Birmingham | 83 |
It’s quite different. The rules and regulations are much less formal than the NCAA, and among the more noticeable differences are that BUCS has both a short course and a long course championship.
Also… for some teams it’s a chance for a bit of swimming and a lot of fun. In the past some teams have turned up in fancy dress (or even swum relays completely naked (and got in big trouble)) which I think probably wouldn’t happen at NCAAs. The champs normally fall at a decent time in the season to put together some good performances, so teams like Loughborough, Stirling, Bath and Edinburgh are normally pretty impressive across the weekend. These are the only teams in the UK really set up for combining serious training and academics.
For Short Course and Long Course a large portion of the unis actually go out clubbing on the saturday night and meals on the friday so alot do dress up. Its a chance to peak training for but also has so much less stress and expectation so is more enjoyable. When the BUCS team championships come around alot of grant funding is tied up with results so at that one ( Which is also short course) most unis do truely taper and take it seriously outside just the big 5/6 who are the one of few who take the first 2 bucs events so seriously. For SC and LC most unis actually take a large portion of recreational swimmers just… Read more »