Two Gold and Three Silver Medals at BUCS
The British Universities & Colleges Sport Outdoor Athletics Championships (BUCS) held in Bedford between 29th April and 1st May. Once again this proved a success for TVH athletes, withthe 2017 outdoor season already getting off to a fantastic start as athletes set personal bests, win medals and earn their University points.
Zoey Clark in her final year at university became BUCS 400m champion for the first time. Zoey eased her way into the final with easy winning runs in the heats (55.48) and semi-final (54.65). In windy conditions in the final, Zoey still managed to run her second fastest ever time over a single lap of the track, 52.75, to take the BUCS title by over 1 second.
Another maiden BUCS gold came from TVH’s new higher competition athlete, Clare Maurer, with a great clearance in the pole vault at 3.80m. Clare is a great addition to the ladies squad and we look forward to seeing her competing for TVH in the national league.
Having represented GB at the Fazaa Para Athletics Championships in Dubai at the end of March, Amar–Mazigh Aichoun was back in action in Bedford competing for his university. Amar had a fantastic competition by winning two silver medals in the Ambulatory 100m and 200m with very good times of 12.47 and 25.05 into strong headwinds of over 2m/s.
Tayla Benson was also in fine form in the 100m hurdles. Tayla narrowly missed out on a place in the final when running a new lifetime best time of 14.44 to finish 3rd in her semi-final, having earlier run 14.89 in her heats into strong headwinds.
One of the favorites for the 400m hurdles final was TVH’s Chris McAlister who looked to be in superb form in his semi-final when finishing nearly 3 seconds ahead of his nearest rival with a solid run of 52.85. In the final Chris had a good lead entering the home straight but cluttered hurdle 8 very badly. He somehow managed to stay on his feet and ran determinedly to the line finishing just outside the medals in 4th place with 53.63.
In a very strong high jump competition, TVH had an amazing four athletes make the women’s high jump final, namely Annabelle Bates, Ella Widdop-Gray, Pippa Rogan and Teele Palumaa. It was Teele who had the best competition in the tricky weather conditions by claiming a fantastic silver medal in her first ever BUCS competition with a jump of 1.78m. Former champion, Pippa, was just outside the medals in 5th with 1.72m and Ella was back close to her best winning valuable points for her university with 1.66m for 6th place. Cambridge University student Annabelle Bates, who’s in a very busy period with her veterinary course, jumped lower than her qualifying height of 1.63m as she finished 12th.
Three TVH athletes contested the triple jump; Ella Widdop-Gray, Lia Stephenson and Teele Palumaa. Both Lia and Teele easiery qualified for the final with jumps of 11.89m and 11.44m. Ella’s jump of 10.06m was good enough for 10th in her qualifying pool. In the final both Lia and Teele narrowly missed out on the medals as they finished 4th and 5th with 12.01m and 11.78m respectively.
Long jumper Ogo Anochirionye was another athlete very close to the medals. Ogo qualified well with a jump of 6.95m for 3rd place in his pool. In the final he went even higher with 7.29m finishing in 4th place.
In her last BUCS competition Danielle Opara finished 4th in a strong shot put competition. Having easily qualified with 12.65m for 2nd place in her pool, Danielle launched the shot put 13.29m in the final.
Ellie-Mae Stokes (HCA) doubled up to do the long jump and javelin. In the long jump, Ellie was close to her personal best with 5.14m jump placing 7th and a throw of 32.14m for 9th place in her qualifying pools.
Another one of TVH’s throwers who doubled up was Raul Rinken, who competed in the shot put and discus. A throw of 10.70m earnt him 9th place in his shot put qualifying group, however this was not quite enough to make the final. He did however qualify in the discus with a throw of 39.93m and in the final he improved to 41.83m for an excellent 5th place finish.