Men's and Women's Squash club winners hold trophy and stand behind Champions signCategoriesEvents Student News

Treble for Squash Champions on BUCS Big Wednesday

Treble for Squash Champions on BUCS Big Wednesday

And just like that, another season comes to a close with the annual BUCS Big Wednesday Finals showcase, held in Loughborough, welcoming six teams from the University of Birmingham.

With Football, Water Polo and Hockey also competing, it was our Squash club who led the way on the day to secure their second successive BUCS National Championship.

 

An impressive three-straight 5-0 wins for the Men’s 1s, Women’s 1s and Women’s 2s saw Birmingham remain as the nation’s powerhouse for squash across the UK. 

Women's Squash players in the court
Men's Squash players in court

With the Men’s defeating Heriot-Watt and the Women’s 2 seeing off the challenge of Edinburgh, the treble was secured by Birmingham’s Women’s 1s to mark an incredible achievement for the club. 

 

A special mention must go to our Squash Head Coach Jon Tate for his ongoing dedication, support, and guidance that has helped the club excel this season.

Men's Football on pitch

Elsewhere, the day was kicked off with Men’s 1 Football as they faced Cardiff Metropolitan 2s in the Aldi Men’s National Trophy.

 

After taking the lead early on, both teams went in at half-time level as Cardiff pulled a goal back. But it was late on where Cardiff scored late on to steal a 2-1 win.

The travelling supporter turned their attention to the swimming pool next as Water Polo Men’s 1s battled it out against Leeds Men’s 1 in the Men’s National Trophy.

 

A high-scoring affair was edged by Leeds 11-10 for yet another narrow defeat for our Lions. 

 

Men's Water Polo competing in swimming pool
Women's Hockey competing on the pitch

With a huge crowd cheering on our hockey players, our Women’s 1s faced Nottingham 1s in the ICG Women’s National Championship final.

 

Nottingham led the first-half and following a closely fought battle secured the win adding a second to win 2-0 on the day.

It’s been an incredible season of BUCS action, with victories celebrated every single week.

 

Whether we win, draw or lose, our Lions never fail to bring their fighting spirit to every fixture.

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Oliver Morgan standing in front of a Great Britain sign wearing a swim cap and goggles.CategoriesEvents Student News

Brum success at BUCS National Championships

Brum success at BUCS National Championships

It was a weekend jam-packed with sport as University of Birmingham athletes across Athletics, Badminton, Climbing, Fencing, Karate and Swimming competed in this year’s BUCS National Championships.

Even mascot Rory the Lion returned to action in the annual 200m Danny Porter Foundation sprint, grabbing a silver medal amongst 16 representatives.

 

Hosted at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport, the BUCS points rained in for Birmingham with medals, results and records falling across the three-day event.

Didi Okoh celebrating her win.

Athletics completed a team 2nd place for the third year in a row with eight medals for Birmingham athletes. 15 of the athletes set personal best records, with the club securing its most top 8 positions across its most diverse events.

Didi Okoh (60m Ambulant), Kimani Jack (High Jump) and Tyler Bilyard (1500m) brough home gold for Brum, with Tom Bridger (3000m) and Cameron Bailey (400m) scooping silver. The Women’s Team 4x200m also finished second in their event.

Darian Moore (60m) and Zoe Hunter (1500m) completed the medal haul with Bronze finishes. Josh Woods (Triple Jump), Emilie Oakden (Pole Vault) and Orla Brennan (400m) just missed out on a medal with fourth places in their respective sports.

A record-breaking Swimming scooped six top four finishes, including four individual and two team events.

 

The Men’s and Women’s relay teams set club records finishing fourth and sixth in their respective 4 x 100m events. Para swimmer Lucy Jordan Caws won a silver medal with a season’s best in the 100m Butterfly.

 

EDCAP athlete Ollie Morgan set the pace with two Gold and two BUCS records in the 100m & 200m backstroke events.

Swimming club member in pool

Results from across the rest of our sports clubs across the weekend:

Two fencing participants dressed in fencing attire.

Fencing

 

Liam croft secured 3d place in Men’s Sabre.

Karate team group shot - all wearing red and blue University of Birmingham kit

Karate


Men’s Inter Kata – BRONZE – Harri Jordan
Women’s Novice Kata – GOLD – Katherine Galvin
Women’s Inter Kata (–70) – BRONZE – Roni Parnes
Men’s Novice Kumite (-70) – GOLD – Rajan Sidhu
Men’s Novice Kumite (+80) – BRONZE – Tom Harrison
Men’s Novice Kumite (-80) – BRONZE – Jack Maher
Women’s Novice Kumite (+63) – GOLD – Neha Nair
Women’s Senior Kumite (-50) – BRONZE – Lyra Cobb
Men’s Team Kumite – BRONZE
Overall Team Results – SILVER

Climbing


Men’s Individual 4th – Ian Davis
Men’s Team 4th Place
Women’s Team SILVER

Women's climbing team all with BUCS medals around their neck.
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CategoriesEvents

The IBSA World Games: A Round Up

The IBSA World Games: A Round Up

The University of Birmingham was incredibly proud to host the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Games during the last two weeks of August, during which we welcomed over 1250 blind and partially-sighted athletes from 70 countries onto campus. The IBSA World Games are an international multi-sport event that occurs every four years and enables blind and partially-sighted athletes to compete in a number of sports.

As well as welcoming Men’s Blind Football, Women’s Blind Football, Judo, Archery and Showdown onto campus – 5 of the 10 sports! – we also hosted a ‘Give it a Go’ Activation Zone, where people were encouraged to try out a variety of sports throughout the second week of competition.

Judo and Men’s Blind Football, which took place in our Munrow Arena and on the Bournbrook 3G pitches respectively, were particularly hotly-contested events, as they formed part of the qualification process for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

As the IBSA’s President, Ilgar Rahimov, stated in his speech during the Closing Ceremony, we were fortunate to host and witness “sporting excellence every day”, as participating athletes “excited and inspired the world.”

University of Birmingham Sport thoroughly enjoyed the buzz that The IBSA World Games brought to our facilities and hope that our members and the wider community managed to get involved in some of the action!

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Swim club group photo, wearing new balance kits on red backgroundCategoriesEvents Student News

A Stellar Season For The Swim Club This Summer

A Stellar Season For The Swim Club This Summer

The swimming strokes have been in full force this summer, with students competing in a number of events across the UK and beyond! From the British Swimming Championships and the Island Games, to the World Deaf Swimming Championships and World Aquatic Championships, we are so proud of the Club’s achievements this season.

 

SWIM ENGLAND SUMMER NATIONALS

 

The National Summer Meet is Swim England’s biggest domestic swimming event of the year. Taking place across 2 – 6 August this year, the Summer Meet forms part of a swimming competition structure in Great Britain whereby the top ranked swimmers are invited to compete at the British Swimming Summer Championships.

 

Five students from the Swimming Club competed; Adrian Ting, Ben Newell, San Menzer, Ellie Sibbald and Ella Jenkins. We saw some incredible swims across the five days, with strong performances in both the heats and the finals. 

The squad came away with three club records, two gold medals , one fourth place finish and two top ten finishes. 

A superb way to finish the season that as undoubtedly been the Club’s most successful season ever, with 75 club records set and record high levels of representation and participation at meets of all levels. 

Coach Gary Humpage with arm around swim student Adrian Ting

Coach Gary Humpage (left) and Adrian Ting (right)

WORLD DEAF SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

Earlier this month,Lucy Jordan-Caws headed to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to compete in the sixth World Deaf Swimming Championships. Alongside intensive training, across the summer Lucy spent time fundraising to cover the costs associated with competing. With generous donations from friends, family and organisations including the Rob George Foundation, she successfully met her fundraising target.   

 

Lucy gave it her all against some tough competition, finishing in 6th place in 200m butterfly, 11th in 100m butterfly, 13th in 50m backstroke and 16th in 50m butterfly and setting two personal bests and two season bests in the process. 

 

She will now be focusing her time towards qualifying for the 2025 Deaflympics, which will be held in Tokyo, Japan.

Lucy Jordan-Caws standing infront of World Deaf Swimming Championships board
Lucy Jordan -Caws swimming

OLLIE MORGAN REPRESENTS GREAT BRITAIN IN JAPAN

 

July saw Elite Swimming Scholar, Ollie Morgan, travel to Fukuoka, Japan to represent Great Britain at the World Aquatic Championships.  Ollie has had an incredible season, becoming a x3 British Champion at the British Swimming Championships and becoming the second-fastest British man in history to swim the 50m backstroke earlier this year.

 

Ollie made it all the way to the semi-finals in Japan, securing 9th place in both his 100m backstroke (Olympic A qualifying time) and 200m backstroke (Olympic B qualifying time) – what an incredible result! His next goal is to be selected for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

Close up shot of Ollie Morgan wearing red swim cap and goggles on head
Ollie Morgan pictured swimming mid backstroke, coming up for air

Photo creds: Mines Kasapoglu

The team start back training in September to prepare for BUCS and Swim England Winter Nationals, and long term preparation towards Paris Olympics trials.

Keep up-to-date on the clubs achievements via their  social media.

SWIMMING
CategoriesEvents

Swapping the desk for San Diego: Tom to represent Wales

Swapping the desk for San Diego: Tom to represent wales 

Meet Tom Porter, a staff member at the University of Birmingham who this June will represent Wales on the international lacrosse stage.

 

Competing in the World Championships in San Diego, California, he will join 30 of the best teams in the world across 11 days of fixtures.

 

A current Project Manager at the School of Engineering at the University, read his story below….

My Journey to Lacrosse

 

I first picked up a lacrosse stick at Loughborough University in 2013 having never previously heard of the sport. I found that I had a natural fit for the defensive position, and I played for 2 seasons during my time at Loughborough. However, upon graduating due to the lack of lacrosse in the Midlands at the time I left the sport for a couple of years. In 2018 I was part of a group of people who gathered in Nuneaton to see if it was possible to form a local lacrosse club.

 

This group of people would go on to become some of my best friends and we formed Nuneaton Lacrosse Club which now thrives with 2 men’s teams and a women’s team. I fulfil the role as the Club Captain at Nuneaton Lacrosse Club, and I am incredibly proud of the work we do to promote the sport in the Midlands.

My Journey to Wales

 

During 2018 the previous World Championships were held in Netanya, Israel. At the time a friend managed to secure a spot on the Wales Lacrosse team for those championships.

 

This ignited my desire to try out for my Country. In late 2018 I attended open trials for Wales Lacrosse and was successful at my first attempt in breaking into the Wales squad as a defender. I was a member of the Wales team that attended the Home Internationals tournament in 2019 and won that title beating England & Scotland.

I was then again successful in being selected for what we all thought was going to be the 2020 European Championships. However, Covid-19 had other plans and these games were postponed. It was a significantly challenging time, Wales Lacrosse is recognised as an elite sport by Sport Wales so we were able to continue training as lockdowns eased, but there was huge commitments to home workouts and Zoom meetings with teammates.

 

Finally in 2022 these games were rescheduled, and I went to the European Lacrosse Qualification Tournament in Poland. Wales won all 5 of our games in Poland and were the first European nation to earn their qualification spot at the World Championships. At this tournament I also scored my first points for Wales recording a goal and 2 assists across our games. During 2023 I have again represented Wales at the Home Internationals tournament, recording a victory against Scotland and narrowly loosing out on the title against England.

Now the Welsh team are on their way to the World Championships in San Diego, California. Where we will compete against 30 of the best teams in the world. Across 11 days of competition, we will face a tough Group B draw which sees Wales take on Uganda, France, Denmark & number 6 in the world ranked Japan. The top 2 countries from this group will carry on with chances to take the overall title of World Champions.

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Six University of Birmingham athletes wearing their medals at the BUCS Karate ChampionshipCategoriesStudent News

UoB Place Third at BUCS Karate Championships

A fantastic weekend at the BUCS Karate Championships saw University of Birmingham place third overall among top competition.

 

There were strong performances all round for UoB with so many athletes pulling out their best performances across the competition last weekend. Taking place at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge Arena, UoB’s Karate Club took twenty-two competitors to the championship, accompanied by seven coaches and team members to support them. The championship saw a range of disciplines being performed, showcasing karate at its best.

One competitor who really shined throughout the championship was UoB Sports Scholar Sukhjote Sohal who secured a gold medal in the -75 kg Senior Kumite tournament (fighting). This victory set the tone for the rest of the team who went on to achieve another seven medals across the weekend.

In the female +68 kg Senior Kumite, Mary Roper succeeded in her medal bid, winning a bronze medal in her event. Joseph Estruch, who is also the club’s President, also brought home a medal, securing a bronze in the -60 kg Senior Kumite. Both deserve congratulations after fighting off some tough competition.

Also performing well was Davide Dal Martello who won two medals across the weekend. His first came in the Novice Male Kata event where he and fellow teammate Tom Waltham secured silver and bronze respectively. Martello then went on to win another silver medal in the Male -80 kg Novice Kumite, making it a very successful weekend for him.

In the Intermediate Male Kata, UoB won two medals again, with Theo Gannon and Joey Lim winning silver and bronze in the event to bring the medal count up to eight. There were many other impressive performance of UoB’s Karate members across the weekend, all contributing to UoB’s third place finish in the championship.

President Joseph Estruch was very pleased with his club’s performance. “Overall, a very strong set of results for UoB Karate,” he said, praising the team. “We have the potential to win many more next year.”

With so much talent in the team, next year’s championship may be even better for UoB’s Karate Club. A massive congratulations to Karate and everyone who competed. Next year’s competition is already shaping up to be another success!