Despite cold, wet and windy conditions at the BUCS Visa Outdoor Athletics Championships this past weekend, the chance to compete in the Olympic Stadium inspired many BUCS athletes on to achieve their greatest performance to date.

With the Championships forming a London 2012 test event as part of the London Prepares Series, record numbers of athletes and universities applied for the opportunity to participate and represent their university in the Olympic Stadium. A record 1,500 BUCS athletes from 117 universities, including 22 universities entering the Championships for the first time, competed for the opportunity to become the BUCS Champion 2012 in their discipline.

The standard of competition was exceptionally high, as always, with six Championship Records broken over the course of the four days, including:

- Men’s 110m H: Andrew Pozzi, University of West of England (13.35 sec)

- Men’s 4x100m Relay: Brunel (40.28 sec)

- Men’s Pole Vault: Nick Cruchley, Birmingham University (5.22m)

- Women’s 2000m S/C: Pippa Woolven, Birmingham University (6:36.60 mins)

- Women’s 5000m: Charlotte Purdue, St Mary’s University (15:55.12 mins)

- Women’s Javelin: Isabelle Jeffs, Loughborough University (53.93m)

Not only did Andrew Pozzi, University of West of England, smash the Championship Record in both the qualifying rounds and the final but he also went on to achieve the Olympic Qualifying ‘A’ Standard for the 110m hurdles twice during the weekend, practically securing his place on Team GB this summer. 

Following his outstanding performance Pozzi, who won silver in the 2011 Junior World Championships in Tallinn and is the current UK Indoor Champion, stressed the importance of the BUCS Championships to his preparation for London 2012: 

“I always enjoy competing in the BUCS Athletics Championships and I’m really proud to be here. I’ve just run a huge personal best so I’m really happy with my performance. This is the first time I’ve ran the Olympic ‘A’ Standard and what better place than at the BUCS Championships in the Olympic Stadium. I think it’s great that BUCS has held the Outdoor Championships in the Olympic Stadium just weeks before the London 2012 Olympic Games, it’s really inspired me and it’s been a great experience for all of the student’s who competed. There are lots of students pushing for Olympic qualification places for this summer so it’s great for that we’ve had the opportunity to compete here and have an extra motivation to qualify.”

Other high profile BUCS Champions over the weekend include:

Harry Aikines-Ayreetey, Loughborough University, competing in 100m and 200m. In 2009 Harry won bronze as part of the 4 x 100m relay team at the Berlin World Championships and in 2005 he was named as the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year and the IAAF’s Rising Star of the Year after becoming the first athlete to win gold medals at both 100m and 200m at the World Youth Championships. 

BUCS men’s 100m Champion in a time of 10.42 seconds

Montell Douglas, Middlesex University, competing in 100m and 200m. Montell represented Team GB in the 100m and 4 x 100m at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, having broken Kathy Cook’s long-standing national 100m record in Loughborough, running 11.05. In 2010 she was part of the triumphant 4 x 100m relay team in the Delhi Commonwealth Games. 

BUCS women’s 100m Champion in a time of 11.81 seconds

Charlotte Purdue, St Mary’s University, competing in 5,000m and 10,000m. Charlotte won gold in the junior race for the 2010 European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira and finished 14th in the senior race in Punta Umbria in 2011. Charlotte finished 4th in the 10,000m at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games and in 2011 won the English National XC Championships and BUCS XC Championships.

BUCS women’s 5,000m Champion in a Championship Record time of 15:55.12 minutes

BUCS doesn’t just cater for the elite athletes. Whilst many competing were trying to achieve the Olympic Stadium Record and claim the Championship title for their discipline, for others participation was more about setting a personal challenge and performing to their best ability. Despite the weather, the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Stadium under test event conditions inspired 437 students to achieve personal bests over the weekend. With 352 of these being achieved on the track, there could be some fast times to watch out for at the Games. 

Karen Rothery, Chief Executive Officer, British Universities & Colleges Sports, said: “For student athletes, what better way could there be to enhance the student experience through sport than competing in the Olympic Stadium itself? Sport is taking centre stage in the UK and it is enjoying its highest profile for many years; in a large part this is due to the contribution of our universities as we’ve been highlighting this week, Universities Week. We have been delighted with the level of involvement from students and universities across the country this past week and hope that this continues over the coming years.”

In addition to BUCS Athletics Champions, Joe Townsend, a BA Hons Politics student from University of Birmingham, became the Champion in the inaugural Become the Commentator competition at the Olympic Stadium. Joe competed against fellow student finalists Ben Snowball and Thomas Gayle studying an MA in Journalism and a Diploma in Teaching and Life Long Learning from University of Sheffield and University of Warwick respectively. The three finalists put their skills to the test when they commentated on the women’s 1500m heats in the morning, alongside the official Stadium commentator to win the chance of commentating live at the ‘2012 Hours to Go: Evening of Athletics and Entertainment’ evening event at the Stadium. Joe’s flawless live commentary in front of 40,000 spectators during the evening led to congratulations from the sports presentation and commentary team and could be the start of an amazing career.

For more information, please see www.bucs.org.uk.

(Photos by BUCS & Flickr: Sum_of_Marc & Cudders130)