THE first of the 60m heats kicked off the first day of the BUCS Championships at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield last Friday as Leeds’ Anna Short and Chloe Boomer took to the blocks. Short stormed through her heat gaining first position with a time of 7.88s, not far off of her personal best.
Boomer impressed the team as she held second position throughout and ran a new personal best time of 7.75s. Having secured herself a position in the semi-finals, she ran another personal best of 7.70s, making herself the first Leeds athlete to gain a spot in the BUCS finals and finishing in 7th place.
Richard Powell and John Ashcroft both secured a comfortable first place in their 1500m heats on the second day of the competition. Powell’s 4:07.91 run and Ashcroft’s 4:02.08 finish saw them both progress to the semi-finals. Ashcroft ran an identical time in the semi-finals as in the heats, whilst Powell managed to shave an impressive eleven seconds off his heat time. Both athletes secured their positions in the 1500m final with Ashcroft winning bronze in 4:00.07 and Powell gaining sixth position in 4:05.04.
Will Snook took first place with a time of 50.24s in the 400m heats, putting him in a promising position for the semi-finals the following day in which he ran 49.30s and finished in second place, with the help of his lucky headband (although he just missed out on a place in the final). Meanwhile in the field events, Anna Short jumped 5.07m in the long jump, and gained 7th place overall. Nerves were high as the 4x200m relays were soon to kick off with only six teams able to qualify out of the thirty-seven entered. Zoe Thresher, Gussie Beech, Nicky Dobra and Sophie Money achieved smooth baton hand-overs and finished in one minute and 51 seconds. However, they were unable to qualify to the relay finals. Despite this, they were extremely pleased with their performance.
Hopes were high for Phil Sesemann as he breezed the 3k heats, finishing in 2nd place with a time of 8:23.28 minutes. The following day saw Sesemann win the third BUCS medal for Leeds as he finished in 2nd place with an impressive time of 8:11.63 minutes. Day three of the competition continued to be one of success as Beech and Money stepped up for the 200m heats. Beech took 5th place in her heat and Money took 2nd with a time of 26.29s, securing a place in the semi-finals later in the day. She continued to impress herself and the team as she ran a new indoor personal best of 26.24s in the semi-finals. Despite not making the final six, Money was pleased to have made it as far this year as she had done in BUCS last year.
Dobra believed it to be one of the best BUCS performances for Leeds University Union Athletics Club for a few years, which put the team in high spirits. They have even higher hopes for outdoor BUCS which is due to take place in late April or early May.
Zoe Thresher
Featured image: Zoe Thresher