Anna Hopkin takes freestyle gold as University swimmers win seven medals at BUCS Short-Course Champs
The University of Bath swimming team won seven medals, including one of each colour for Anna Hopkin, as they finished fourth overall at the BUCS Short-Course Championships in Sheffield.
With aspiring Rio 2016 Olympians and Paralympians among the students racing at Ponds Forge over the weekend, the standard of competition was exceptionally high as reflected by the number of new records set – including World and British records.
Hopkin was the only swimmer to go under 25 seconds in the women’s 50m freestyle final as she recorded an impressive winning time of 24.94.
She followed that with 100m freestyle bronze in 54.97 and also joined Jennifer Scott, Shauntelle Austin and Anne Bochmann in the University’s 200m freestyle relay quartet that won silver in 1:42.88.
Natural Sciences student Austin, a Bill Whiteley Sports Scholar, was also a silver-medallist in the 200m backstroke, her time of 2:11.92 being just a tenth of a second faster than team-mate Stephanie Reynolds who won bronze.
There was a second silver medal for Pharmacy student Bochmann in the 200m freestyle in 1:57.34, while Integrated Mechanical and Electrical Engineering student Miles Munro won men’s 50m freestyle bronze in 22.29.
Hopkin, Austin, Scott and Alexandra Kaye finished just outside the medals in four other finals, as did Santander scholar William Harrison in the 100m and 200m backstroke. There were also fourth-placed finishes in the 200m medley relay for both the men’s and women’s quartets.
A host of other final places helped the University of Bath swimmers, coached by Mark Skimming, secure 201 BUCS points in total, putting them fourth in the overall standings.
