What a weekend for #TEAMWARWICK at the BUCS Nationals in Sheffield (24-26 February).

Athletics, Badminton, Climbing, and Swimming came together as one for a weekend of success, personal bests, and plenty of enjoyment.

Athletics

On the track most notably, scholarship athlete George Seery ran a personal best of 48.25 in the 400m Men’s semi-finals. This led him to the final to which he placed in 4^th (48.46), milliseconds behind a 3^rd place medal.

Over in the field, we had performances from another scholarship athlete, Femi Segun, in the Men’s Pole Vault. Femi vaulted a 4.33m in the final, scoring him a joint 7^th result. Warwick Athlete Angus Bowling followed closely, placing 11^th with a 4.23m result.

Action from the field events saw athlete Janet Browne compete in not only one but two field events. Janet jumped to 7^th place in the Women’s High Jump with a 1.66m and continued to place 11^th in the Women’s Triple Jump with a 11.56m. An amazing result to score so highly in two disciplines.

Finally, we saw the Men’s 4x200m Relay, with the team just missing out on qualification and coming 9^th overall.

We saw some outstanding athletics performances throughout the weekend, with Warwick looking stronger than ever. It’s a very bright future for athletics at Warwick.

Badminton

Jake Thomas (Men’s Singles), Maya Kateli (Women’s Singles) and Sam Weekes/ Emily Chan (Mixed Doubles) all won their first two rounds before unfortunately losing in the final round of qualifications. Maya Kateli/ Asha Kateli (Women’s Doubles), Antrea Alexandrou/ Emily Chan (Women’s Doubles) and Sam Weekes/ Lawrence Li (Men’s Doubles) all made it through qualifications into main draw.

Yang Zi (Women’s Singles), Andy Oates/ Yang Zi (Mixed Doubles) and Sam Weekes (Men’s Singles) all won their first round in main draw, making it through to the last 16 in their events.

Six players from Warwick made it through to the quarter finals. Jingchen Lu (Women’s Singles) won her first round in main draw before going on to beat the 5/8 seed in straight sets, making it through to the quarter finals! Kelvin Ho/ Phoebe Moore (Mixed Doubles) also won their first two rounds in the main draw both in straight sets before losing to the number 2 seeds in a very tough quarter final. Scott Oates/ Andy Oates (Men’s Doubles) also beat the 9/16 seeds in the round of last 16 before losing to the number 2 seeds in a well-fought quarter final match.

Two Warwick players made it all the way through to the finals. In Men’s Singles, Samuel Ricketts won every match in straight sets, beating the number 3/4 seed in the semi-finals before eventually receiving a silver medal after a well-fought but very tough final.

Our Men’s Doubles pair, Samuel Ricketts and Kelvin Ho, became the first ever Warwick Badminton players to win an event at BUCS Nationals. In a phenomenal, and very tense, semi-final, Ho and Ricketts beat the number 1 seeds, sending them through to the finals where they beat their opponents in straight sets and became Warwick Badminton’s first ever gold medallists at BUCS nationals!

“This year we had an amazing year at BUCs Nationals. It was a culmination of 4 years work to finally gain a gold medal at an event which has been dominated by other Universities previously. The whole team were amazing but the cheery on top of the cake was winning Gold in the Men's doubles. They play fantastically and it was well deserved. History was made for Warwick here and I am very proud to be working with all these athletes.” – Head Coach Nic Strange.

Climbing

Some awesome performances from our Climbing athletes. After a long morning session on Saturday 25^th February, athletes were hard at work solving challenging routes, totalling points after points.

In the men’s event, we saw scholarship athlete Ben Smith place joint 12^th overall with fellow Warwick athlete Tom Stopford. Followed closely by scholarship athletes Elliot Payne and Joshua Bruyns, who placed 21^st and 33^rd. All scores in, the men’s team came 5^th overall.

In the women’s we saw a fantastic performance from Eve Poirier, who placed joint 18^th. Other performances saw Helen Norman placing 41^st, Laure Renault scoring 54^th place, and Holly Hickman 58^th.

Swimming

What a weekend for our swimming athletes. 13 athletes headed over to Ponds Forge for the weekend and managed to return with 12 club records and secured 7 finals.

Scholarship athlete James Le Grice topped off two A Finals, placing 5^th overall in the Men’s Backstroke (26.20) and 9^th overall in the 50m Butterfly (24.86). An outstanding result for James. Further performances saw Ben Fielder place 9^th for 50m Breaststroke B Final (30.10), and Ryan Zhao place 8^th in the 200m IM B Final (2:16.48).

We also saw some great action from our relay teams. The Men’s 4x100m Medley (Team: James Le Grice, Ryan Zhao, Jack Turrell, Lucas Lawman) placed 8^th in the B Final (4:05.56) and also placed 9^th in the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle B Final (4:05.56). The Women’s 4x100m Freestyle (Team: Alyssa Basinger, Joanne Neal, Gen Moller-Butcher, Anna Drawer) placed 9^th in the B final (4:14.57).

Warwick scholarship athlete, James Woodgate, has reclaimed his national title to win a gold medal in the Senior Men’s Recurve at the National Indoor Archery GB Championships, which took place 3-4 December. The silver medal was won by Warwick alumni, Tom Hall.

It’s fantastic that two Warwick students claimed first and second at the Championships.

James is currently ranked number 1 in the national rankings.

Warwick is leading the way with supporting talented athletes in education in England, having been accredited by an innovative Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) initiative.

Backed by Sport England, the TASS Dual Career Accreditation Scheme allows athletes to reach their potential in education alongside achieving success in their sport, with support services including physiotherapy, nutrition, lifestyle support, psychology strength and conditioning and a private medical scheme.

A dedicated performance team at the Sports and Wellness Hub support student athletes during their studies at Warwick, providing a comprehensive range of services including financial assistance, bespoke strength & conditioning, lifestyle and nutrition support and physiotherapy.

Being a TASS Dual Career Accredited Site allows Warwick to attract talented athletes and build connections with other local sporting institutions.

We’re proud to celebrate Warwick students and scholarship athletes who are representing their country at this summer’s Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The University of Warwick will be co-hosting the International Children's Games from 11 -16 August 2022

The Warwick campus is to become an Athletes Village during the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Find out more.

Read the full match report for the PSL game University of Warwick/Kenilworth 3-2 RAC (Royal Automobile Club).

University of Warwick Sports Scholar, Kare Adenegan won two silver medals in wheelchair racing at the championships in Dubai in the T34 800m and 100m races.

Head Badminton Coach Nic Strange has been selected by Wales to compete nationally in the sport following a successful trial on Saturday 20 July.

On Thursday 20th June we held our annual activator awards evening to celebrate the hard work and dedication of all of our activators.