2022 BUCS SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, November 18th – Sunday, November 20th
- Ponds Forge, Sheffield, England
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Draft Entries
- Live Results
- Livestream
The 2022 British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Short Course Championships concluded from Ponds Forge over the weekend but not before Loughborough University put on a show across several men’s events.
We reported how Irishman Daniel Wiffen knocked down a new 800m free national record en route to his victory in that race, but the 21-year-old also scored the 1500m victory for his squad.
Touching in a time of 14:37.69, Wiffen established a new BUCS Championships Record on the way to producing the 3rd fastest time of his career. His time here sits only behind his own personal best and Irish national record of 14:32.13 and his #2 time of 14:36.78, both logged at the 2021 FINA Short Course Championships.
Loughborough teammate Andreas Vazaios of Greece was another multi-event winner, with the 28-year-old beating the pack in the 50m back, 100m fly and 200m fly events.
In the 50m back, Vazaios touched in a time of 23.66, within striking distance of his own personal best of 23.37 from this same meet last year.
The Greek ace turned in a time of 50.48 to win the 1fly field, comprised of a 24.03 opener and a back half of 26.45. The performance represents the 2nd best of Vazaios’ career, with only his PB of 50.13 from the 2021 edition of this meet having been quicker.
Finally, the men’s 2fly saw Vazaios beat the field by over 3 seconds en route to clocking a winning result of 1:53.40.
Additional Loughborough victories came from Greg Butler who swept the breaststroke events, but just barely in the shortest distance. He snagged the 50m win in 27.07, edging out Archie Goodburn by only .06.
In the 1breast, Butler held more of an advantage, clocking 58.97 to Goodburn’s 59.52 while Butler handily took the 200m distance in 2:09.00.
But it wasn’t just the Loughborough men who collected gold on the weekend. Swansea’s Lewis Fraser did some damage in the 50m free, producing a time of 21.99 to claim the top spot. He backed that up with a victory in the 50m fly, out-touching Vazaios 22.94 to 23.00 in the race.
Bath’s Jonathon Adam got to the wall first in the 100m back, hitting 51.76 for a new personal best.
Adam now ranks as the 12th fastest British swimmer of all-time in the event. Entering this meet Adam had never before been under the 52-second threshold, owning a previous PB of 52.02 from the 2021 Swim England Winter Championships.
Additional Winners
- Felix Auboeck of Austria/Loughborough grabbed 200m free gold in a time of 1:44.56, the 7th fastest short course performance of his career.
- Loughborough teammate Elliot Clogg was the top 200m backstroker, hitting 1:54.11 to out-touch Nottingham’s Charlie Brown by just .33.
- The men’s 100m free saw Jordan Cooley clock a winning effort of 48.18 to climb atop the men’s 100m free podium. That hacked his previous time to bits with the Leeds Beck athlete easily overtaking his 48.77 from last month.
- Evan Jones got it done for gold in the men’s 200m IM in a winning effort of 1:56.01 to now rank the Millfield athlete as the 14th best-ever British performer.
British Swimming are in need of a world class female breaststroker and, another on fly if there 4x100Med relay is to become competitive come Paris. It is a little strange however, a Russian athlete training and competing in the Uk at this time.
Loughborough were dominant, Stirling with a more domestic, youthful squad were impressive and Bath surprised by pushing a very poor Edinburgh out the Top 3 in the overall standings.
As far as I’m aware, Tatiana Belonogoff was born and raised in England.
Sorry, I realise that I made a daft comment. It always struck me as odd that she decided to compete for Russia, a decision that she probably regrets.
Is there a separate recap of the women’s competition? (It’s a mixed event)
Yes -https://swimswam.com/catie-deloof-logs-bucs-record-in-50free-en-route-to-gold/
Tatiana Belonogoff swam very fast: two PBs for her in the 50 breaststroke (29.54) and in the 100 breaststroke (1.04.41), both performances over the 900 Fina points. Any chances that she’ll rechange her citizenship to British?
Among other things this was genuine conversation all around poolside. Especially since Renshaw and Vasey have now retired there is an open space for her whereas she cannot compete at all currently.