Golden double for swimmer Josh Gammon as University of Bath student-athletes win 19 medals at BUCS Nationals 2024
University of Bath students won 19 medals, including double gold for swimmer Josh Gammon and silver on the track for Justin Davies, when they contested BUCS Nationals 2024 in Sheffield over the weekend.
Podium places came in athletics, karate and swimming, while the University was also well represented in the badminton, climbing and fencing competitions.
Swimming
There were 14 medals for University of Bath students in the Ponds Forge International Swimming Pool, with Josh Gammon and Jemima Hall both bagging four apiece.
Josh Gammon (centre) won two gold, one silver and one bronze
The women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team of Ekaterina Price, Maisie Gifford, Jemima Hall and Anna Farrow
Sporting scholar Leah Crisp won two silver medals at her last BUCS ChampionshipsSports Performance student Gammon again dominated the butterfly races as he won 50m and 200m gold, in 23.75 and 2:00.27 respectively, as well as 100m silver in 52.75. He then teamed up with Kaleb Fox-Jones, Jack Skerry and Rob Darbyshire to win men’s 4x100m freestyle bronze in 3:24.31.
Business student Hall – who, like Gammon, is coached by Andrei Vorontsov – won 200m freestyle silver in 2:00.78 plus bronze over 100m (56.20) and 400m (4:17.02), finishing runner-up to Bath team-mate Leah Crisp (4:15.50) in the latter.
Hall also won women’s 4x100m freestyle bronze in 3:48.69 with Ekaterina Price, Maisie Gifford and Anna Farrow, the latter collecting her second medal of the meet following a third-placed finish in the 200m individual medley (2:19.43).
Santander Sporting Scholar Crisp, fresh from setting the Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualification standard in marathon swimming, finished her last BUCS competition with two silver medals after also finishing runner-up in the 800m freestyle (8:44.98).
Civil Engineering student Niamh Ward impressed at her first BUCS long-course championships, winning 100m backstroke silver (1:01.96) and 50m backstroke bronze (29.25), while Chemical Engineering student Hendrik Van Der Leest claimed bronze in the men’s 200m backstroke (2:02.61).
Other top-10 placings were recorded by Gifford (women’s 50m free, 6th, 26.54; women’s 100m free, 6th, 57.69; women’s 200m free, 10th, 2:06.28); Van Der Leest (men’s 200m butterfly, 6th, 2:03.96; men’s 200m free, 7th, 1:53.92); Charley Joyce (women’s 50m back, 6th, 29.55; women’s 100m back, 6th, 1:03.88; women’s 200m back, 8th, 2:19.87); Skerry (men’s 100m back, 4th, 56.09; men’s 50m back, 6th, 26.27; men’s 200m back, 8th, 2:05.09); Robbie Hemmings (men’s 50m back, 5th, 26.11; men’s 100m back, 7th, 56.37); Price (women’s 200m butterfly, 4th, 2:15.22; women’s 100m butterfly, 5th, 1:01.82); Isaac Dodds (men’s 200m IM, 5th, 2:07.13; men’s 400m IM, 9th, 4:37.01); Sam Williamson (men’s 400m IM, 8th, 4:36.88; men’s 200m IM, 9th, 2:08.17); Crisp (women’s 1,500m free, 4th, 16:55.42); Louise Ashford (women’s 800m free, 7th, 9:12.71; women’s 1,500m free, 7th, 17:30.11); Farrow (women’s 400m IM, 4th, 4:58.71); Darbyshire (men’s 50m free, 9th, 23.47; men’s 100m free, 10th, 51.88); Ward (women’s 200m back, 4th, 2:14.24); Annabel Smith (women’s 50m free, 9th, 26.83); Caitlin Hartley (women’s 200m breaststroke, 9th, 2:37.71); Christian Ryan (men’s 200m breaststroke, 9th, 2:20.56); Archie Evans (men’s 50m back, 8th, 26.76); and Leila Flower (women’s 200m butterfly, 8th, 2:19.68).
Athletics
Fresh from winning a brilliant 800m bronze at the British Indoor Championships and setting a big 1,500m personal best of 3:42.27 in Cardiff, Biomedical Sciences student Justin Davies produced another impressive performance in Sheffield to claim silver in an exciting 1,500m final, his time of 3:55.99 being just two-tenths of a second off top spot.
There was success in the high jump competitions too, with Biology student Evelyne Fonteyne clearing 1.75m for women’s silver and Goldsmith Sporting Scholar Luke Ball winning men’s bronze at his first BUCS competition with a 2.06m clearance.
Samantha Stubbs (Sport and Exercise Science) was sixth in the shot put with a 11.97m PB and Lizzy Ingram (Sport Management and Coaching) also set a lifetime best of 4:39.08 while finishing eighth in the women’s 1,500m final.
Semi-finalists in Sheffield included Basil Rock (800m, 1:54.66, Modern Languages), Josh Maggs (200m, 22.16 PB, Sport and Exercise Science), Theo Cheshire (1,500m, Physics) and James Burrage (60m, Mathematical Sciences). Both Cheshire (4:05.49) and Burrage (7.10) had set PBs in the heats.
BUCS came at the end of an impressive indoor season for University of Bath Athletics Club, coached by Colin Bovell, which saw personal bests also set by Fonteyne (high jump, 1.81m), Stubbs (60m hurdles, 8.94), Ariyanna McGee (60m hurdles, 8.76) and Dan Austin (800m, 1:57.13).
Karate
There were two bronze medals for University of Bath students in the BUCS Karate Championships, going to Jonny Gough (Mathematics) in the men’s senior kata and James Venn in the men’s notice kumite -70.
Find out more about student sport at the University of Bath by visiting teambath.com/student.
Pictures courtesy of BUCS/Kane Smith/Adam Bates/
