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
- 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.
Following up on her 200m free and 200m IM victories from night one, 20-year-old Olympian Freya Colbert exacted more vengeance in the women’s 400m IM this evening in Sheffield.
Colbert of Loughborough stopped the clock at 4:35.51 to beat the field by over 3 seconds en route to gold.
Teammate Lily Booker settled for silver in 4:38.59 while Plymouth’s Beatrice Varley rounded out the podium in 4:39.99.
Despite Colbert’s outing being dominant here, her lifetime best is much quicker, resting at the 4:29.04 produced for silver at the 2023 European Short Course Championships.
19-year-old Holly McGill stood her ground against the women’s 200m back field, registering a time of 2:05.30 as tonight’s gold medalist.
A pair of Loughborough aces were behind the Stirling budding star. Honey Osrin snagged silver in 2:05.51 while Colbert bagged the bronze in 2:05.98 in her 2nd event of the session.
Additional Notes
- Leeds Beck’s Jordan Cooley reached the wall first in the men’s 100m free, hitting a time of 47.93. That eked out gold ahead of Birmingham’s backstroking ace Oliver Morgan who settled for silver in 47.95. Loughborough’s Calvin Fry was also under the 48-second threshold in 47.98 as tonight’s bronze medalist.
- Evie Davis logged a time of 54.54 as the winner of the women’s 100m free, giving her Stirling team 20 points.
- Ready to represent GBR next month in Budapest, 21-year-old Josh Gammon of Bath turned in a time of 22.96 as the sole men’s 50m butterflier under 23 seconds. He’s been as quick as 23.55 in his career to rank as Great Britain’s 4th-speediest man in history.
- Stirling’s Lucy Grieve got it done for gold in the women’s 50m fly in 26.43, beating Olympian Laura Stephens and Tallulah Paisley who tied in 26.87 for silver.
- Loughborough’s Greg Butler posted 58.98 to win the men’s 100m breast by well over half a second.
- Anna Morgan was the winner of the women’s 100m breast in 1:06.09, the sole performer of the field under the 1:07 barrier.
- Loughborough cleaned up the top 3 spots of the women’s 800m free Fleur Lewis handily won the gold in 8:31.17 as teammate Lucie Hanquet, who represents Belgium internationally, secured silver in 8:36.04. Lucy Fox was the bronze medalist in 8:36.60.
