Day 1 of BUCS Outdoor at the Manchester Regional Stadium was a roaring success! Fresh off the back of last week’s scintillating win in the Men’s 10,000m by Tomer Tarragano, and a heroic effort by Elisha Tait in the Women’s 10,000m to come 4th; BUAC were ready to achieve even more success across the 3 days of BUCS.
The grand opener of BUCS this year was the 1500m heats. BUAC had a dominating presence, sending the maximum of 4 athletes in both the men and women’s races. Elsa Palmer, Georgie Campbell, Kate Willis, Ella Semple, Archie Parkinson, Fin Proffitt, Tyler Bilyard and George Rowland all auto-qualified safely though to Sunday’s semi-final.
In the field, qualifications were occurring all over the stadium, with BUAC showing our strength in numbers. The women’s triple jump and discus and the men’s shot-put and high jump qualifications were all commencing. In the triple, Phoebe Gooch and Chanel Mba jumped well to attempt to make it out a tough qualification, coming up just short. In the discus, a two-part final was set for our throwers to try and reach BUCS glory. In the B final, Emelina Darvell threw 37.53m and Eloise Alcock threw 36.48m to place 4th and 5th respectively. In the A final, Kirsty-Ann Ebbage opened her last ever BUCS account with a strong 6th place finish in a stacked final, throwing 43.76m!
In the Ambulant Discus running alongside the Discus competition, BUAC achieved their first medal of the day, as Didi Okoh threw incredibly to get 17.75m, gaining her a silver medal and setting the tone for a successful weekend!
In the shot, Billy McCauley qualified into the final with a cracking throw on 13.37m, with Evan Campbell agonisingly one spot off qualification with 12.75m. However, Evan did manage to dust himself down and qualify for the high jump final with a height on 1.83m, joined by Kimani Jack who qualified into Monday’s final with a soaring jump of 1.88m.
Back on the track, sprints were in order as the fast men and women of BUAC descended onto the track to qualify for respective next rounds. In the 100, Darian ‘always wants’ Moore blitzed his heat to post the 9th quickest time in 10.78 to put him in a prime position for his semi-final. Joe Foster also ran superbly in his heat, setting a massive new lifetime best of 11.29, just missing qualification.
On the women’s side, BUAC women shone brightly to set a real marker to the competition. Diani Walker won her heat to qualify 6th quickest into the semi-final with a speedy 11.87, then Madeleine Whapples ran her second quickest ever 100 to win her heat, going 12 dead and putting herself 8th quickest overall in the heats. Ashante Graham ran commendably to narrowly miss out on qualification to the semi-final by a tenth, still going sub 13 in 12.92 to open her 100 season. Steph Robertson also just missed out, going 12.97 to show the strength of female sprints in BUAC to have all 4 go sub 13.
Following the flat running was hurdling, specifically 400m hurdles. The men opened the hurdling weekend, with Fionn Leaney competing at his first outdoor BUCS and laying down a solid time of 57.25, unfortunately not enough to qualify to the final on Monday. Panashe Majuru did qualify though, in 56.43 to make the final. However, it was the women’s side that shone brightest in day one of BUCS. All 4 women selected made the 4-hurdle final on Monday! Captain Orla Brennan led by example to qualify fastest in 58.94, going sub 60 for the first time in her life! She will be joined by Amelia Briggs-Goode, on her first ever BUCS, qualifying 3rd quickest in 60.89, Louise Robinson qualifying 5th fastest in 61.58 and Molly Swingler qualifying 7th quickest in 62.14 to set another new PB after the Loughborough Open! All 4 ladies also ran the times to be able to do British Champs in July in one race!
Then came the turn of our speed endurance kings and queens, the 8 runners. Again, showing the might of BUAC, we had 4 men and 4 women going in both the men’s and women’s 800. Jai Sispal, Harry Fisher, Finlay Hutchinson and Luke Richardson all breezed qualification, all auto-qualifying for tomorrow’s semi-finals. They were then followed by the women, Katie Hopkins, Abigail Ives, Freya Bennett and Zoe Hunter all sailing into the semi-final.
Meanwhile, the field action again began to hot up as afternoon qualifications and finals occurred across the Sportcity stadium. Firstly, in the women’s long jump, Steph Robertson led the BUAC charge, followed by Cleo Tomlinson and Ashantae Graham to attempt valiantly to make the final, all unfortunately coming just short. In the men’s shot final, Billy McCauley backed up his excellent qualification into the final to come 9th, throwing a massive new PB of 14.36m by over half a metre. In the men’s javelin final, Craig Moncur stepped up to throw a good series, ending with a 51.62m. However, it was Fenton Bishop-Timings who shone, gaining BUAC’s first second of the weekend with a brilliant bronze, throwing 64.07!
Next on the track was the turn of the 400 runners. Big powerful figure Cameron Bailey, fresh from BUCS indoor glory, shone to qualify 5th fastest into the semi-finals for Sunday in 49.27. Josh Saunders will join him, after gaining a fastest non-automatic qualifying spot. In the women’s side, drama rained down as the heavens opened on the girls. Nevertheless, this did not deter Izzy Skelton and Olivia Kimbowa from both producing serene displays in the rain to qualify easily into the semi-finals.
After the high-octane action of the 400s, rain stopped the ability for us to see the 100m semi-finals, therefore we would have to wait until Sunday to see more BUAC domination on the track!
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