BEST EVER BUCS OUTDOORS MEDAL HAUL FOR BRUM
The UoB Athletics team had its most successful ever weekend at the BUCS Outdoor Athletics Championships in Manchester this weekend, culminating in its most successful year to date.
The annual event saw 80 athletes competing in the final event of the BUCS Outdoors calendar across the first weekend in May, and saw a staggering 19 medals hauled home by the team – beating the previous record of 15!
If that wasn’t enough, the club saw a record 49 top-8 placements (previous record of 31) and 65 finalists (previous record 54). This, plus the 24 personal bests accumulated in the process, saw UoB place second overall in both the men’s and women’s standing – for the first time in over 12 years at these Championships.
Luke Gunn, Head of Athletics and Head of Performance at UoB Sport & Fitness said it was a superb result.
“There were some incredible landmarks achieved from our athletes across the weekend – to name a few, Didi Okoh who was the first ever athlete to ever win four medals at one Championship; first time in modern BUCS that the men have won the 4x100m relay, 84% of the female finals being Birmingham representation. But it wasn’t just the results: as usual, Birmingham bought the atmosphere and it was fantastic to see and hear such support. A huge thank you to them and as always to our coaches, support staff and club development for their incredible work to organise these Championships.”
A full list of our amazing medallists is as follows:
GOLD:
Tomer Tarragano, 10,000m
Kristian Imroth, Steeplechase (the first ever Birmingham 1-2-3 clean sweep)
Abbie Ives, 800m
Men’s 4x100m (first time in modern BUCS, that the men have won 4x100m relay)
Didi Okoh, Ambulant Long Jump (first athlete to ever win 4 medals at one championships)
SILVER:
Didi Okoh, Ambulant Discus
Orla Brennan, 400m Hurdles
Angel Diaz, 110m Hurdles
Tom Bridger, Steeplechase
Women’s 4x400m
BRONZE:
Didi Okoh, Ambulant 100m
Fenton Bishop-Trimmings, Javelin
Amelia Briggs-Goode, 400m Hurdles (the final of which was made up of 50% of Birmingham athletes)
Elliot Moran, Steeplechase
Amelia Quirk, 5000m
Tyler Bilyard, 1500m
Lily Holt, High Jump
Didi Okoh, Ambulant Shot
Women’s 4x100m
Plus, Kirsty-Anne Ebbage was the first non-combined eventer to make 3 individual finals (Shot Put, Hammer and Discus).
Together with BUCS Indoors earlier this year and Cross Country, these results push us above last year’s BUCS record number of points and medals, with a whopping 35 medals and 6 team medals; totalling 398 points in 2023 so far…with Combined Events still to come!
A huge congratulations to all of our competitors, and thank you to the supporters and coaches who give up so much of their time to help – particularly to Jade Surman, who led this Championship’s logistics for her first time with consummate ease and professionalism; and also to Sprint Coach, Mike Bennett, who had an incredible Championships directly contributing to 5 of our medals and our best sprints squad depth ever.
All images credit: Issy Boffey