The 2014 BUCS Indoor Athletics Championship proved to be a very successful one for Cardiff University. With a comparatively small squad of 12, the athletics club left the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield with three medallists and seven top eight finishers.
The three-day event saw Cardiff’s finest take on the best athletes currently studying in the UK. This year’s competition included recorded breaking performances – namely Loughborough’s Jordan Kirby Polidore’s blistering 21.04 in the Men’s 200m – and although the specialist sport universities of Loughborough and Cardiff Metropolitan claimed the top two spots, Cardiff finished a very respectable sixth, amassing 35 points.
The majority of the University’s success came from the pole vault, where three athletes achieved top-five positions.┬á Alongside Callum Court, who finished in fifth place in the men’s event, Lucy Stickland and Sally Peake were able to gain valuable points for the athletics club with their bronze and gold medal efforts in the women’s event.
Whilst Peake has had previous success at the BUCS event (she still holds the championship record, which she set in 2012) Stickland’s medal was her first at the competition and she told gair rhydd: ┬á”I’m so happy to have won bronze at BUCS Indoors, both for myself and for the Cardiff team.
“After taking the pole vault back up just over a year ago, it’s taken a lot of hard training, good coaching and help from the High Performance Programme to get me back up there with some of the best vaulters in the country.
“Standing on the podium made all that hard work worthwhile and was the perfect high to end the ┬á indoor season on.”
In addition to Peake and Stickland’s field efforts, CUAC also gained a track medal through sprinter Hannah Thomas in the women’s 200m. Reflecting on her gold medal-winning run, the English Literature student said: “I was really happy with my performance, especially the time I ran, as I wasn’t expecting it.
“Going into the final, I had the quickest time, so I was going for gold.┬á I knew I could get a medal, but as my coach said to me, I got the right colour in the end. As it is my final year at university, it was my last chance to win a medal at the BUCS Indoors, which was something I hadn’t done before.”
Thomas is a previous winner of the England U20 championships and was also a finalist at this year’s British Athletics Championships. Regarding her plans for the future, she said: “I’m now aiming to get a lot of training in ahead of the outdoor season and hopefully run the qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.”
Alongside the headline-grabbing performances of Thomas, Peake and Stickland came several personal bests for Cardiff’s athletes. Both Nick Marsh in the men’s 400m and Makoye Kampengele, in the men’s 60m managed to achieve new lifetime bests in what was a fruitful competition for all involved.
Thomas was full of praise for the ethos within the team: “The support from Team Cardiff was absolutely brilliant. There is a very close-knit vibe within the team and everyone supports each other. As it’s a team event, you’re aware that you’re collecting points for your team and everyone wants to do well for each other.”
Regarding the success of the championship, CUAC club captain Rachel Underhill said: “It was definitely one of the clubs best BUCS team perfomances! Owen Haswell has done a fantastic job as track and field captain and it bodes very well for the outdoor track season.”
Alistair Corless
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