Another year, another enthralling BUCS Nationals weekend. Leeds Beckett boasts an array of talented students from 200m runners with Olympic aspirations to competitive Triple Jumpers, but how did they fair?
Between the 23rd and 25th of February, Universities across the country sent their best athletes to Sheffield to compete against one another in a bid to return home with silverware, with Leeds Beckett being no different.
Universities have been competing against each other in sports for over a century, but BUCS itself is entering its 17th annual competition, with the first happening back in 2008 after a merge between UCS and BUSA occurred.
BUCS offers not only a chance to earn bragging rights over other universities but also an opportunity for talented students to showcase their abilities for all to see, but who exactly are the athletes that proudly donned the purple colours?
‘Absolute honour, I love it’
Beckett sent their very best athletes to the indoor championships hoping they could return with some medals; they certainly didn’t disappoint.
Mens 200m specialist David Chapman, who is hopeful of a place on Team GB for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, has been widely tipped to have a very bright future ahead of him in athletics and Beckett will be elated that Chapman chose to represent them at this year’s event.
Chapman, when asked what representing Leeds Beckett means to him said: “Absolute honour, absolute honour, I love it, I love Beckett.
“I wouldn’t take on a role on the committee if I didn’t love it, you know? Pairing it with athletics as well it’s just incredible.”
After falling one short at last year’s indoor BUCS athletics indoor championships, winning silver in the men’s 200m final, Chapman made sure he came back this year with a fire in his belly and went one better, this time winning that elusive gold medal with a personal best time of 20.97.
‘Beyond confident’
Elsewhere, the Leeds Beckett men’s 4x200m relay team were also brimming with confidence ahead of their race in the finals after securing 2nd place in heat 5, finishing only behind Brunel.
A part of that team was Jake Goodman, who lauded his team’s togetherness both on and off of the track. Goodman said: “We all hang out not just as part of training but as a team outside as well, so that team chemistry the bonding that we do, you know we go for meals, we do other things outside.
“It just brings the whole team together and means we can all gel and get to know one other more and it just brings us together as an athletics team as well.”
Also a part of the team is Lei-vann Mcgillvary-Allert, who was especially poised heading into the final. “Beyond confident”, said Mcgillvary-Allert. “We’ve had the practice, we know each other’s speed, skills and assets, so we’re going to go to the track and we’re going for that medal.”
The Beckett men’s relay team went on to secure 4th place in the final, with a time of 1:29.42 finishing narrowly behind Loughborough, Brunel and Cardiff Met who rounded out the top three.
A day to remember
This year’s BUCS indoor athletics championship was certainly one that those who competed and attended will not forget in a hurry, with action and excitement being almost impossible not to find wherever you may look.
For Beckett, they finished the day in 5th position overall after accumulating an impressive 42 points on the day with Loughborough running away with top spot on a staggering 288 points.
Beckett’s efforts were largely helped by the aforementioned David Chapman’s gold in the 200m final, whilst Team GB member Ethan Hussey also secured gold for Beckett in the men’s 3000m final with a time of 8:05.22.
Elsewhere Tom Kwissa launched himself to 2nd place in the Men’s High Jump Final with a score of 2.09 whilst Callie Rae Coates propelled herself to 3rd place in the Women’s High Jump Final with a score of 1.72, earning silver and bronze medals respectively.
Fierce rivals the University of Leeds could only amass 16 points on the day which was good enough for 15th place overall as Beckett claimed bragging rights on this occasion.
