UoN Sport is dedicated to making a positive impact in Nottingham’s local community through numerous volunteering opportunities. Our goal is to support children from local schools by educating them on health and wellbeing and helping them develop various skills through sports. This work would not be possible without the amazing student volunteers who dedicate their time to make a difference and share their passion for their sport.

Club in Focus is here to celebrate the exceptional commitment and engagement of a sports club and its volunteers, with Dodgeball showcasing amazing commitment over the term. We spoke to several volunteers from the club to learn why they, and the club got involved in volunteering, what they have gained from the experience, and why they would recommend volunteering to other clubs and students. Dodgeball is actively involved in various programmes, including Sport in Schools, the Secondary School Discovery programme and the Inclusive Sport programme. These initiatives allow volunteers to coach people from different age groups and backgrounds in different settings. They also participate in Just Play and EMPOWER, offering regular sessions open to all students and exclusive sessions for female and non-binary students.

“From the club’s perspective, we have been involved with volunteering for a number of years – it is a substantial component of what we do as a club. We are keen to engage both, the wider student community and the local community. We are passionate about making volunteering opportunities as easy to access as possible to our members to allow them to enhance skills outside of competitive dodgeball. Volunteering is a great way of bringing people together and getting them more involved with the club. Our volunteers have become an integral part of the club with many of them having since put themselves forward for committee positions.

Volunteering has always been a great way of helping people and taking to their needs, and it gives me great joy to be able to provide as assistance. I’ve got a joy out of volunteering – it gives me even more passion and love for the sport! I would recommend volunteering to clubs and other students as it is a great way of putting your name out there and making your sport known to the younger generation.”

Tanay Sheth: UoN Dodgeball President (2024-2025)

“I got involved in volunteering mainly to add it to my CV, but I have gotten so much out of it that I didn’t expect. A few of the things I have gained through volunteering is public speaking, time management and a greater understanding of the sport. It also gave me the leadership skills and confident which led me to running for vice president of the club. Personal skills are not the only reason why I would recommend volunteering to other clubs – it can allow your members to give back to the community and inspire young people to get involved in sports and high education, which is something different to day-to-day training and competitions.”

Kamil Szykula: UoN Dodgeball Vice President (2023-2024)

“Volunteering has been a highlight of my university career! I have gained a lot of confidence in leading a group of people and in teaching a sport to children from a range of backgrounds and ages – it is very rewarding to see the children’s skills develop across the sessions. Initially, I got involved as I was keen to add to my CV and get the most out of all the opportunities available to me through the club, but it has since come to mean so much more to me! I would not hesitate to recommend getting involved in volunteering – it is a great opportunity to make students more than just their degrees.”

Ben Baker: UoN Dodgeball Welfare, EDI officer & Club Outreach Lead (2022-24)

“I got involved in volunteering as I saw it as an opportunity to make a positive impact on the local community, whilst also being able to help spread awareness of the sport. Dodgeball has provided me with a newfound passion, so by getting involved with volunteering I could hopefully pass that feeling onto someone else. I have gained a sense of inclusion and togetherness within the community and my fellow volunteers! I would recommend volunteering; I find it to be a good way to add to your overall university experience. It provides a positive outlet alongside your studies, whilst also enhancing your skills which are beneficial for the workplace.”

Hasan Majid: UoN Dodgeball Welfare, EDI officer & Club Outreach Lead (2024-2025)

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The EMPOWER Girls Leadership programme aims to involve young girls in sports and physical activity, inspiring themselves and allowing for personal development and growth in becoming sports leaders, hoping to inspire others in their schools to be more active.

On Tuesday 16th January more than 70 girls from Nottingham City schools took part in the programme, hosted at David Ross Sports Village in partnership with the University of Nottingham, Active Notts, School Sport Nottingham and Youth Sport Trust. The day allowed the girls to learn the basics of sports like boxing, fencing and table tennis, whilst also allowing the female student sport leaders to develop their leadership and communication skills when teaching the sessions. Kitty, a volunteer from the UoN Boxing club volunteered on the day and said, “The EMPOWER day was something that Boxing were incredibly grateful to be part of! Boxing is often a sport seen to be dominated by males, so to give young girls the space and opportunity to learn a new sport was incredible. The programme is a wonderful scheme that opens the sporting world to young girls, allowing them to participate in sports that aren’t your stereotypical ‘female’ sports.”

Throughout the day, the girls attended workshops delivered by Youth Sport Trust which helped them recognise the barriers for girls in sport and allowed them to explore their motivations and approaches in ways to overcome them. It gave the girls an opportunity to build confidence towards sports and physical activity. During the workshops, the girls were supported by female student volunteers from the University of Nottingham who will go into the schools and closely work with the group of sport leaders. Sanah, one of the pupils who participated in the day said, “I thought the day was really good. It has inspired me to become a good leader to help girls who lack confidence in sport. I want to help others, so they don’t have to hide behind others. I loved the whole day.”

A teacher from the day said, “Overall I thought the day was great and provided opportunities for the girls to take part in sports they’ve never participated in before. It also gave the girls chance to think about barriers girls face or even themselves and I felt this really inspired the girls. I walked away with 6 girls who felt empowered to make a difference at Djanogly and that is truly fantastic!”

To find out more about the programme or to get inv0lved please contact joanne.turner@nottingham.ac.uk

You can find out more about our Leadership academy here.

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Every year, UoN Sport is greatly committed to making an impact in Nottingham’s local community through our many volunteering opportunities. We aim to support children from local schools by educating them on health & wellbeing and helping them develop different sets of skills through sports. Our work would not be possible without the amazing student volunteers that dedicate their time to make an impact and share their passion about their sport. Leader in Focus is here to celebrate all our volunteers, and this term there were three people that really stood out in their role.

Congratulations to Daisy Ngo, Toby Strawson and Tallulah Thomas!

We asked our winning volunteers to share what is like to volunteer with children, so here is a little bit about what they do, why they got involved and what benefits they get.

Toby Strawson

Toby is a Sport for Good volunteer, a programme that uses the power of sport to drive social change in the local community. “In our team we run fun and engaging sports sessions for primary school students with the goal of keeping the students active whilst developing important skills they can carry into secondary school.”

He got involved in the Sport for Good programme to not only develop his professional skills but also to try to make the sessions as enjoyable as possible, with the aim to show the pupils that taking part in these activities can be fun regardless of whether they usually enjoy it or not. “Although at times there may be challenges, I benefit a lot from this programme by seeing the students develop and enjoy their sessions, which is very rewarding for me and the team.”

Daisy Ngo

Daisy is the President of UoN Thai Boxing, volunteering for both the Just Play Thai Boxing sessions and Secondary School Discovery Days. In these sessions she teaches the basics of Muay Thai in a fun and engaging way, trying to encourage discipline and control whilst the students learn a new sport.

“I started getting involved in volunteering as I found so much joy in seeing members of our club improve and fall in love with the sport. I wanted to try spread this even further through introducing the sport to school children when they are at an age where they may be looking for new hobbies! Volunteering has also led me to meet so many amazing people that I would have never met and has also helped me improve on my communication, leadership and mentoring skills!”

Tallulah Thomas

Tallulah is involved in our Sport in Schools programme – teaching primary school children about American Flag Football. As many have not heard of the sport, the session introduces the basics like the rules, positions and skills.

“I’d never heard of flag football before I joined university this year. I was trying something new so when the opportunity for flag in schools came up, I thought it’d be nice to introduce it to others too. By teaching others about the sport, I thought it would also boost my own confidence in my ability to play.”

“Trying to get a group of young children to listen quietly for an amount of time can be difficult, so this experience has really pushed me to develop my leadership skills and confidence when speaking in front of groups. I look forward to the sessions every week because I love the energy the children bring – it’s nice to see them making an effort to engage because it shows they really care about learning the sport, so it feels good to know I’m teaching them new things!”

Get Involved

Our Sport in Schools and Sport for Good programs have been especially beneficial to children within the local community. If you would like to get involved and volunteer through one of our programmes, join us for term 2!

Check out the Leadership Academy Website as well as the Sport for Good Page.

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Every year the Leadership Academy works really closely with the university’s sports clubs to create opportunities for children around the local community, allowing them to discover new sports and breaking the economic barrier that comes with being an athlete. This academic year the University of Nottingham Boat Club showed outstanding efforts and contributions to get over 150 children involved in rowing. They helped launch the Active Row Nottingham programme, which is supported by London Youth Rowing and the Henley Royal Regatta Charitable Trust, with the aim to provide children with less opportunity the chance to experience rowing.

We reached out to the club’s president, Ethan Page-Mason, who told us a little bit more about their motivation behind getting involved in volunteering.

“We got involved in this program as rowing traditionally can be seen as a sport dominated by privilege with very few minorities or underprivileged communities ever getting the opportunity to experience the sport we love. Therefore I felt it is important that we try to get as many people involved with the sport as it can teach great life lessons like teamwork alongside all the other benefits that are associated with sport. In 2021/22 we first launched our outreach program with Nottingham Girls High School which was a massive success so when it was announced that a new Active Row program was being set up in Nottingham we jumped on the opportunity to expand into more schools and expose the rowing world to as many people as possible.”

As part of the programme, the club went out to 7 different schools throughout the year with some of the highest free meal rates. Our students delivered weekly rowing sessions with 4 rowing machines donated by Concept 2, and they later started getting the kids out on the water during term 2. One of the highlights of the year was having the BBC attend one of these sessions to film one of their water sessions, and interviewed Josie Cunningham who spoke about increasing diversity in rowing. This was part of the broadcast that was shown alongside the Boat Race footage!

Opportunities such as this not only have a huge impact on the children, but also on those university students that volunteer their time every week. The Leadership Academy makes it possible for students to gain numerous skills, from confidence delivering sessions to transferable leadership skills. Ethan remarks that “the club has grown massively from the opportunity to work in the community and create a positive impact on so many young lives. The individuals involved with running the sessions gain a massive sense of accomplishment from having participated in the program.”

Get Involved

If you would like for your club to get involved and volunteer through one of our programmes, join us for next academic year! More information is available through the Leadership Academy Website as well as the Sport for Good Page. If you have any questions, please join the Leadership Academy Facebook Page and don’t hesitate to drop us a message!

The post Volunteers’ Week: University of Nottingham Boat Club appeared first on Sport at UoN.

As we continue our celebrations for Volunteers’ Week, we focus this time on three outstanding student leaders who have gone above and beyond this term.

Every year UoN Sport is greatly committed to making an impact in Nottingham’s local community through our many volunteering opportunities. We aim to support children from local schools by educating them on health & wellbeing and helping them develop different sets of skills through sports. Our work would not be possible without the amazing student volunteers that dedicate their time to make an impact and share their passion about their sport. Leader in Focus is here to celebrate all our volunteers, and this term there were three people that really stood out in their role. Congratulations to Ebony Rowe, William Jibogu and Josie Cunnington! 

We asked our winning volunteers to share what is like to volunteer with children, so here is a little bit about what they do and their take on it. 

Ebony 

Ebony is a Sport for Good volunteer who decided to volunteer as a way of interacting with her local community – finding it to be an opportunity to learn new things, meet new people whilst improving her own personal and professional development. 

“Over the course of the Sport for Good programme, my leadership and confidence have massively increased, leading and engaging large groups of children into sports activities focused on certain skills. I have gained and strengthened a whole host of skills throughout the programme which I too will carry throughout both my life and career. This experience has massively contributed to my development of inter-personal skills which equip me in both my personal and professional roles and ultimately has made me a confident and adaptive leader. Sport for Good is a boundless opportunity to make a positive impact on the local community and allowed me to contribute to a greater cause.”  

William 

William has been an amazing volunteer throughout his involvement in Sports in Schools. He has engaged in sessions, enjoying the aspect of teaching and inspiring the younger generation.  

“Volunteering has made me more confident – in some sessions we had minimal or no intervention from teachers and had to deal with kids that would distract others. This has honed my ability to be stern and authoritative yet to remain kind and likable. I think everyone should volunteer at some point to understand what it means to sacrifice for the good of others with no payment. It can also provide skills that would not otherwise be learned.” 

Josie 

Josie is a member of UoN rowing, helping to deliver the sport in schools. The programme allows kids who may have never had the chance to experience the sport – teaching the children valuable skills such as teamwork and determination.  

“My favourite part about volunteering has to be the individuals – there are some kids and stories that you never forget! I think it is amazing how everyone can find their ‘thing’ that can almost change the way they live and help improve their lives the tiniest bit. It makes you appreciate life from young eyes as you watch them marvel in this new sport and the skills that they are learning. It reminds you why you chose the sport again and rekindles your passion that the hard work brings.” 

Get Involved 

Our Sport in Schools and Sport for Good programs have been especially beneficial to children within the local community. In fact, 572 pupils across 17 schools have received fun sports sessions from our volunteers.  

If you would like to get involved and volunteer through one of our programmes, join us for term 3! Check out the Leadership Academy Website as well as the Sport for Good Page. If you have any questions, please join the Leadership Academy Facebook Page. 

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Now in its 39^th year, Volunteers’ Week is an annual event which sees the incredible impact that volunteering has in communities around the UK. With the theme this year set as ‘Celebrate and Inspire’, we want to use this to show special recognition to our student leaders who have gone above and beyond in their volunteering roles this year. We kick off our celebration with a throwback to BUCS Big Wednesday!

Back in March, the University of Nottingham was honoured to host BUCS Big Wednesday once again. The event took place on Wednesday 22nd March across many facilities including David Ross Sports Village, Jubilee Sports Centre and Highfields, with 16 sports and 58 fixtures taking place. the #GreenandGold took part in 20 of these finals, winning a total of 11 finals!

As every year, the event was supported by our amazing volunteers from the university and we had over 100 students that volunteered to make both days memorable and make sure all athletes and fans had an exceptional experience. The help that these volunteers provide for our events is always massive, and they would not be possible without them. Because of this, we like to reward them and give them the spotlight they deserve! In this occasion there were 3 volunteers that really stood out for their work, engagement and friendliness with our visitors. Congratulations to Debora Mafoua, Nic Fisher and Jo Parkes! We reached out to them to find out more about their experience and this is what they had to say about BBW.

Debora Mafoua

Debora was allocated the role of ticketing at David Ross Sports Village. Being face to the public for long can be hard but Debora kept a smile all day and her friendliness really stood out to all of us around her.

What was your favourite part of the day?

“I didn’t have a favourite part of the day because I really enjoyed the whole day. I guess something that stood out to me was the atmosphere – it was energetic and uplifting. The staff was also very friendly and happy to help which made the day so easy.”

Are you part of a sports club or did you have previous volunteering experience?

“I was previously part of the Trampolining club so I am used to competition environment, but I had not done events volunteering per se. However, I have done ticketing before. I would recommend this opportunity to someone who has no experience as a great way to socialise and get to know new people!”

Nic Fisher

Nic had volunteered with us before and she had shown amazing initiative and help! She volunteered her time for both of the days, and because of her experience and involvement with the Leadership Academy she was assigned the role of Volunteer Lead for Highfields at the rugby fixtures.

Jo Parkes

Jo was down at Highfields as a Scoreboard Operator for rugby. Although the day can get a bit hectic, Jo showed initiative and was kind and helpful to all volunteers and members of staff.

Why did you decide to volunteer for BBW?

“I’m always very grateful for the opportunity to take part in my sports and am aware that a big part of keeping them as affordable and accessible for as many people as possible is the reliance on volunteers.”

How would you recommend this opportunity to someone that has no previous experience?

“I may be quite service oriented but I do think that if you are regularly taking part in activities that require volunteers, you should take your turn to volunteer too. There are loads of ways you can do it so if you don’t think you’ve got it in you to all bubbly and energetically encouraging of the participants to help them keep going, there are often essential behind-the-scenes jobs too. Many of these need little or no training as positive attitude and proactivity will take you a long way.”

Get Involved

The Leadership Academy offers a wide range of opportunities for volunteering. Whether you would like to do regular volunteering through your sports club or non-sport specific, or you’d like to do casual volunteering every once in a while, you can still get involved! All the information on volunteering with the Leadership Academy can be found here.

If you would like more information on any of the programmes and how to get involved please email bex.alexander@nottingham.ac.uk

The post Volunteers’ Week: BUCS Wednesday Volunteers appeared first on Sport at UoN.

With exams now underway, students across campus are revising hard to prepare for their assessments. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming to stay inside your bedroom or library all day, and so it’s important to take a break. Staying active is proven to boost productivity and concentration and we’re here to help as part of the University’s Be Exam Ready campaign.

Not sure what to spend your valuable break time doing? We asked University of Nottingham students who follow us on Instagram for their top tips;

Final year student Olivia (English) spends some time unwinding in the Health and Wellbeing Suite at David Ross Sports Village after a few lengths in the pool. The sauna and steam room offers the perfect place to relax!

Josh (Mechanical Engineering) likes to play squash or go to the gym in the evening to end the day with a workout, whilst Georgia (Law) also enjoys a high-energy game of squash.

Sophia (Veterinary Medicine) enjoys going for walks in the sun to reset her thoughts, and Sonu (Chemical Engineering) recommends a half an hour sunset walk with housemates – it encourages everyone to get out the house!

Chloe (Music) heads to synchronised swimming to stay both active but also to spend some time socialising with her friends, much like Lilly (History) who schedules breaks to meet with friends.

Alessia (English Literature) makes sure she makes a good exercise and sleep timetable and tries to stick to it!

Katie (Politics) unwinds with a HIIT class – a short high energy group exercise class, and Rachel heads to the climbing wall at David Ross Sports Village in between study sessions to keep motivated and energised.

Mana (Veterinary Medicine) chooses from her favourite hobbies to unwind including reading, playing the piano, yoga or lacrosse, with Isaac (Chemical Engineering) tossing some frisbee with friends.

Harine (Medicine) recommends making use of campus, walking around Highfields lake and meditating, whilst Imogen (Physiotherapy) heads to Wollaton Park for a walk on sunny evenings.

Don’t forget if you don’t have a UoN sport and fitness membership, we’ve teamed up with the University’s Be Exam Ready campaign to offer our most popular activities for just £2 during exam period. These include our gym, swim and health and wellbeing suite so take a productive break from the books with us! We wish all students the very best of luck with exams.

The post Be Exam Ready: Top tips to stay active appeared first on Sport at UoN.

Sunday brought a close to the 2023 BUCS National Championship and with it a chance to reflect on some fantastic student sporting stories and achievements.

Despite being an individual competition, over the past 3 days University of Nottingham student-athletes across Athletics, Badminton, Swimming, and Climbing have come together as one team.

We’ve had medals (14 of them!), personal bests, heartbreaks, upsets and injuries and we’ve loved every second along the way.

Sunday proved to be the most successful day of the Championships as Nottingham signed-off in style.

Here’s how the final day in Sheffield unfolded…

Badminton

After the late evening session for our doubles pairings last night, there would be no respite as the #GreenandGold were back in action on court for the first action of the last day of BUCS Nationals 2023.

During the morning’s play, Head of Badminton Martyn Lewis reflected that “it’s been a hectic start to the morning! It’s good that we have extra coaching staff in today with Chris Adcock joining us. I’m very happy with the mornings performances because the players worked so hard in training, so to see it paying off is fantastic. There’s some tough matches to come but hopefully the team can rely on the preparation that they’ve put in.”

After the promising start to the day, there would be six Nottingham pairs that would make it into the quarter-finals of doubles competitions – Sian Kelly/Sam Smith, Sian Kelly/Kirby Ngan, Susanna Ogden/Aimie Whiteman, Harry Lines/Raymond Chong, Sam Smith/Perry Ng, and Victoria Liang/Natasha Lado made it six Nottingham pairs into the quarter-finals of doubles competitions.

Once into the last 8, it would be Sam Smith and Sian Kelly who would be the first to guarantee themselves a medal with all semi-finalists earning a bronze after a convincing 2-0 victory in the mixed. After a short break, Kelly would then be securing herself another bronze after winning her women’s doubles quarter-final over Exeter with partner Kirby Ngan. Joining them in the semi-finals would be Aimie Whiteman and Susanna Ogden who beat Bath 2-0, and after being drawn against each other in the last four, the University of Nottingham were now guaranteed to have a pair in the women’s doubles final.

Attention turned back to the singles with Kirby Ngan now the remaining #GreenandGold representative, facing Medha Shashidharan of Manchester Met for a place in the final and a shot at gold. Once the match got underway it was clear that Ngan had been at these latter stages before, playing controlled badminton from the off to take a 21-8 first set victory, and then secure her status as the first #GreenandGold athlete in a 2023 BUCS Nationals badminton final with a 21-8 second set.

Before the match began, we spoke to Ngan’s doubles partner Sian Kelly who said “it’s been a successful day so far and to be in two semi-finals is nice. It’s been amazing – the team have done really well which is great to see. Kirby is amazing to play with and I’m fortunate to play with her – hopefully we can do as well as we did last year.”

Kelly would then take to the court with Sam Smith in their mixed doubles semi-final against Loughborough’s Tolman and Green. Smith was coming into the match with confidence after a men’s doubles win over Warwick with partner Perry Ng which resulted in another last four match for Nottingham, and another guaranteed bronze. However, the Loughborough pair proved to be better on the day, taking a 2-0 win to confirm Smith and Kelly’s mixed doubles bronze as the first medal awarded to Nottingham on the day.

After an interval for the two to recover, they were both back on court occupying the two centre show courts. This time though, Smith was partnering with Perry Ng in the men’s singles semi-final, whilst Kelly was one of four Nottingham athletes on court as her and partner Kirby Ngan took on Whiteman and Ogden in the all #GreenandGold affair. It would be two 2-0 victories on either court, but unfortunately for Smith, Ng, Whiteman and Ogden – those would go to Loughborough’s Moore and Pullela, as well as Notingham’s Kelly and Ngan who were now one match from gold. However, it still meant that there would be very well deserved Bronze medals for the four defeated Nottingham semi-finalists.

Attention firmly turned to the two finals to round out BUCS Nationals for the University of Nottingham. With Ngan a participant in both, team mate Sian Kelly would be supporting from the stands in the first as the women’s singles number one seed stepped onto court. It would be a familiar opponent for Kirby Ngan and the club as Aimie Whiteman’s last 16 conqueror Alexandra Oprisan from Queen Mary had also reached the final. Once the action began, Ngan settled quickly into the contest and began to set an early pace moving into the mid-set break 11-5 up, before Oprisan mounted a comeback to pull within 3 at 16-13. However, Ngan would not be denied the opener with a 21-15 set, before a very similar set came to an end after a magnificent drop shot by the newly crowned  BUCS women’s singles champion – Nottingham’s Kirby Ngan! A 2-0 victory sees Kirby add a gold to last year’s silver in the same competition. Congratulations Kirby!

Ngan would have to re-focus after singles success, readying for the women’s doubles final with Sian Kelly. Entering the same court that she had won gold on an hour before, the Nottingham duo faced Loughborough’s Chaudhari and Tolman. A solid start meant that the Nottingham pair could build a lead and decidedly took the first set 21-12, making them just one set away from becoming BUCS champions. However, Loughborough would not make it easy, taking the second set 21-9. In the deciding set, Loughborough ran into an early 7-1 lead, but Kelly and Ngan showed great resilience to draw back level at 8-8 before taking an 11-9 lead at the break. Chaudhari and Tolman continued to keep it close all the way up to the final points at 19-19 in what was becoming an epic finale to the weekend. Ultimately the fairytale ending would be for Loughborough as Chaudhari and Tolman claimed the last two points to win the set 21-19, and the match 2-1.

Overall, it would be still be two brilliant medals apiece for Ngan and Kelly.

Results 

Gold – Kirby Ngan – Women’s Singles

Silver – Kirby Ngan & Sian Kelly – Women’s Doubles

Bronze – Aimie Whiteman/Susanna Ogden – Women’s Doubles

Bronze – Perry Ng & Sam Smith – Men’s Doubles

Bronze – Sian Kelly & Sam Smith – Mixed Doubles

Athletics

Building off the successes of Friday and Saturday, the #GreenandGold had several athletes take part in various semi-finals and finals.

Sean Oceng-Engena equalled his personal best in the High Jump to secure a bronze medal. He successfully cleared 2.07 late on the Sunday evening to put himself in medal contention. 2.10 was just a stretch too far as he came within touching distance of a silver – a fantastic effort.

In the Women’s 200m, Zoe Dake finished 2nd in her heat with a time of a 26.18 to reach the semi-finals while Aron Traves managed to record a personal best in his 200m heats (23.89 seconds).

Over at long jump there were high hopes for Michael Anderson in today’s final after a fantastic series of qualifying jumps on Saturday. However, an unfortunate foot injury prevented the Nottingham jumper from registering a single jump in the final and we look forward to seeing him back out there as soon as possible.

It should be noted that each student who represented the #GreenandGold this weekend should be proud of their performances, and we wish them all the best with the rest of the season.

Swimming

Day 3 cemented the 2023 Long Course Swimming Championships as UoN Swimming’s most successful ever, with three more medals added to this weekend’s tally!

The final day of swimming at BUCS Nationals started with Session Five in the morning, seeing 21 University of Nottingham athletes take to the water.

Today’s action kicked off with the Women’s 200m Butterfly where Rosie Smith placed 18th overall (2:35.11s). Both Elliot Day (2:15.50) and Cyril Hanson (2:11.54) competed in the Men’s, placing 18th and 14th respectively.

Silver Medal for  Aliya Bacakoglu in the  Para Women’s Swimming – 100m Butterfly

A time of 57.97s in the Women’s 100m Freestyle saw Amy Davies through to the final, with Fran Whiting (1:01.76s) also finishing 26th overall.

The 100m Breaststroke saw Milly Widdop (1:21.74) and Ellie Ward (1:17.04) compete for the Women, finishing 27th and 18th overall respectively. For the Men, Nikolai Khutoryanskiy ( 1:09.47) finished 24th, with Cam White (1:09.88) in 27th.

Anna Stansfield (2:26.90) and Katie Hammond (2:34.43) represented UoN in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley, finishing 11th and 18th overall. Josh Vance (2:12.01) finished 12th with Constantinos Hadjiconstansis (Hadji) (2:15.39) in 15th for the Men. All four swimmers qualified for the B finals.

With a time of 26.28s, Elliot Day placed 20th overall in the Men’s 50m Butterfly, with Ryan Webb (26.69s) placing 31st. For the Women it was Rosie Smith (30.51s) who placed 34th.

The Women’s 100m Backstroke, Nell Kinch (1:05.10) and Maddy Soper (1:07.24) both qualified for the B final later in the day.

Bailey Scarborough logged a 4:30.08s in the Men’s 400m Freestyle to finish 25th overall.

Owen Say brought home the gold for UoN Swimming in the Men’s 100m Freestyle with a time of 1:03.86s, making it his second medal of the weekend. In the Men’s 400m Freestyle, Owen also added another silver medal to his collection with an incredible time of 5:13.28s. What a weekend for Owen!

We spoke to Glen Smith, Swimming Coach at UoN.

“I first coached Owen in Mansfield, where I coached a number of para swimmer who won medals at Paralympic, World and European championships. In the last 12 months he has improved considerably and he has swam incredibly well this weekend with an impressive medal haul. Owen is thriving in the world of university sport and I couldn’t be happier for him.”

It was a memorable day for Nottingham’s swimmers at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre

Para-swimmer Aliya Bacakoglu took to the water twice this session. In the Women’s 200m Individual Medley it was a bronze medal added to her collection with a time of 3:18.08s! In the Women’s 100m Breaststroke her time of 1:37.46s earned her 4th place.

To continue with the club’s record-breaking weekend, University of Nottingham was represented in 8 finals by 11 athletes in Session Six- 6 individual and 2 team.

First to take to the water was Amy Davies in the Women’s 100m Freestyle final, placing 8th overall after swimming a 57.85s.

Ellie Ward represented UoN in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke B final, finishing 19th overall with a time of 1:16.32s.

In the Women’s 200m Individual Medley B Final, Katie Hammond swam a 2:31.58s to finish 17th.

Both Josh Vance (2:11.11s) and Hadji (2:14.20s) competed in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley B final, finishing 11th and 14th respectively.

The Women’s 100m Backstroke saw Nell Kinch in the A final and Maddy Soper in the B final. Nell finished 8th overall with a time of 1:04.21s and Maddy placed 14th with a 1:06.02s swim.

Some of the most hotly anticipated finals, the Women’s and Men’s 4x100m Medley Relays, Nottingham was represented in both. The Women’s team, made up of Amy Davies, Nell Kinch, Ellie Ward and Anna Stansfield, placed 6th overall with a time of 4:20.72s. Nikolai Khutoryanskiy, Hadji, Elliot Day and Josh Vance made up the Men’s team, putting in an excellent performance to take 10th place with a time of 3:58.89s.

Aliya Bacakoglu and Owen Say with their 2023 BUCS Long Course Swimming medals

Speaking about the success of this year’s Championships, Alex Perry (Assistant Director of Sport – Performance) said, “What a wonderful way to crown the 10th Anniversary of BUCS Nationals. It has been so enjoyable to celebrate the achievements of our student-athletes this weekend and the staff who do an excellent job in supporting them.   Overall, we came away with a total of 3 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze medals, plus a whole range of great performances and positive experiences from so many club members”.

BUCS Nationals Medal Tally (Final)

Gold – Owen Say –  Para Men’s Swimming – 100m Freestyle (S8)

Gold – Kirby Ngan –  Badminton Women’s Singles

Silver – Kirby Ngan/Sian Kelly – Badminton Women’s Doubles

Silver – Simran Kaur – 60M T46 Sprint

Silver – Owen Say –  Para Men’s Swimming – 50m Freestyle (S8)

Silver – Owen Say –  Para Men’s Swimming – 400m Freestyle (S8)

Silver – Aliya Bacakoglu –  Para Women’s Swimming – 100m Butterfly

Bronze – Aliya Bacakoglu –  Para Women’s Swimming – 200m Medley

Bronze – Sean Oceng-Engena – Men’s High Jump

Bronze – Amy Davies – Women’s 50M Freestyle

Bronze – Emma Futcher – Women’s Climbing

Bronze – Sam Smith/Sian Kelly – Badminton Mixed Doubles

Bronze – Sam Smith/Perry Ng – Badminton Men’s Doubles

Bronze – Aimie Whiteman / Susanna Ogden – Badminton Women’s Doubles

You can catch-up on the University of Nottingham’s progress in the BUCS Nationals on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds. There will also be updates on our BUCS Nationals website and social media channels.

You can re-watch all of the action via BUCS TV.

Attention will now turn to BUCS Big Wednesday, the end of the road for the BUCS team sports, with 57 matches set to be hosted by University of Nottingham at David Ross Sports Village and other Nottingham venues on Wednesday 22nd March 2023.

The post BUCS Nationals 2023 – Sunday Round-up appeared first on Sport at UoN.

Saturday at BUCS Nationals is moving day. From heats to the podium, personal bests to season bests, the action is relentless and the special moments come thick and fast.

Over at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, the swimmers had a day to remember registering one of their most successful Championships in memory. Para swimmer, Owen Say picked up a silver medal in the Men’s 50m Freestyle S8  category. There was more Para swimming  success in the women’s 100m Butterfly for Aliya Bacakoglu who earnt a silver medal and it took 25.93 seconds for Amy Davies to add her name into Nottingham’s BUCS Nationals history. The Nottingham swimmer’s bronze medal swim in the 50M Women’s Freestyle, cheered on by the Nottingham faithful, added a fantastic fourth medal to the University of Nottingham’s 2023 tally.

Over the other side of Sheffield, Nottingham’s athletes were heating up just nicely…

Athletics

Joseph Owen opened proceedings with a season best 4:11.49 in the 1500m. His qualifying time, second in his heat was fast enough to take him into the Semi-finals.

In the women’s event Sophie McIlroy & Rachel McDonald also ran a strong race to register a time of 5:05.88 and 5:08.49 respectively.

In the 400m Benjamin Gardiner finished 2nd in his heat to progress to the semi-final. Gardiner ran a comfortable final lap and eased off on the home straight as he cruised through to the semi-final. Moments later,  Dijana Clarke followed suit and finished 2nd place in her 400m heat to qualify with a time of 58.52 seconds and head into tomorrows final.

In the long jump and high jump, three Nottingham athletes progressed through to finals, with Joba Ashiru, Sean Oceng-Engena and Michael Anderson all moving into the final stages of the competition.

At 2pm there was a chance to take a break from the serious on-track action with the return of a very different race altogether. The Annual mascot race sees each University mascot compete in a fun-filled 200m race and for Nottingham it was Lenton the Lion‘s time to shine.

All for a good cause, mascots that race enter through making a donation to the Danny Porter Foundation, a charity that raises fund to help in the fight against cancer.

Lenton didn’t disappoint, running 2nd fastest in the first heat and entertaining the fans on the way!

To close out the evening session we had the Men’s and Women’s 4 x 200m.

Swimming

Nottingham’s swimmers had a record day in the Pool at Ponds Forge wining 2 silvers and a bronze medal.

University of Nottingham didnt dissapoint in the pool. The team concluded the day with seven individuals and two teams competing in a range of A and B finals, the highest amount of finalists UoN has ever had on a Super Saturday! An incredible performance from Amy Davies earned Nottingham their first swimming medal of the weekend. Davies awarded UoN Swimming their first medal of the weekend as she achieved bronze in the Women’s 50m Freestyle final with an incredible time of 25.93s.

It was back to team disciplines with the 4×100 Medley Relay. The Women’s team was made up of Amy Davies, Nell Kinch, Ellie Ward and Anna Stansfield (4:20.88s). They swam brilliantly in the #GreenandGold and placed 2nd in their heat and 4th overall, awarding them a place in the final.

Ellie Ward took to the water in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke B final and placed 20th with a time of 34.84s. In the Men’s 50m Breaststroke B final, Nikolai Khutoryanskiy (30.17s) swam well to finish 19th overall.

The Women’s 100m Butterfly heats were exciting to watch! Anna Stansfield swam a 1:04.16s which put her 14th overall and into the B Final! Rosie Smith and Aliya Bacakoglu (1:31.12s) also took to the water for the 100m Butterfly, finishing 33rd and 63rd overall respectively. The Men’s 100m Butterfly was just as tense with Cyril Hanson (1:00.08s) competing, where he placed 23rd overall.

In the Men’s 200m Backstroke A final, Josh Vance (2:08.53s) also finished 10th overall.

The last swimming action of the day was in the Women’s and Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay finals. The Women’s team, made up of Amy Davies, Nell Kinch, Maddy Soper and Fran Whiting, were in the A final after qualifying 5th on Friday, finishing in 6^th place overall..

The Men’s team were in the B final after qualifying 16th. The team was made up of Hadji, Elliot Day, Ryan Webb and Josh Vance rounded up fantastic day in the pool with a 6th place finish.

Reflecting on a hugely successful Super Saturday, we spoke to Aron Preece, Head Coach at UoN Swimming.

“We have had more finalists, PBs and Season Best times than ever before! There has been a great atmosphere in the Nottingham camp over the weekend and everyone is really excited for the all the finalists. We are especially proud of Amy Davies for her incredible performance over the first two days, especially the amazing bronze medal!”

Badminton

BUCS Nationals day two saw the Badminton National Championships main draw get underway in Sheffield. With no qualifiers from yesterday, it would be the University of Nottingham’s seeded players who would enter the competition and take to the court for the first time this weekend. Kirby Ngan, Sian Kelly and Sam Smith would all be hoping to match or go even better than their results from last year.

Benson Lin (Min Htet Kaung), seeded 9/16, was the first to step onto the hardwood for the #GreenandGold and found an early groove in the men’s singles to defeat Sheffield’s Chin Tze Ng in his hometown. Due to the draw, this would see Benson facing the number one seeded Cholan Kayan from the University of Manchester in the second round. Kayan was last year’s runner-up to Nottingham alumni and current champion, Johnnie Torjussen. Despite a slow start which saw the Manchester man take a 1-0 lead (11-21), Benson found his form and pushed his top ranked opponent all the way in an engrossing encounter. After being tied up at 21-21 and needing to win by two clear points, Kayan managed to take consecutive rally’s to win the set 23-25, and the match.

The second #GreenandGold entrant in the men’s singles would be Harry Lines, seeded 5/8. Before starting his tournament, Lines told us “I just want to go out there and enjoy it as much as I can. I’m playing singles and doubles today and hoping to get through a few rounds and see what happens, but the aim is to enjoy it as much as possible.” Harry faced Vidun Wedagedera of Cambridge in his opening round, winning two close sets 21-18 & 21-19. The close matches continued with Lines going three games with Ciar Pringle of Glasgow Caledonian, but ultimately losing the final set in a very close affair 19-21.

Re-igniting the #GreenandGold on the court following the men’s singles were our women’s doubles pairs of Kirby Ngan and Sian Kelly, Victoria Liang and Natasha Lado, and Aimie Whiteman and Susanna Ogden, who all took to the court at the same time to begin their campaigns. Across the three concurrent matches, every game was won by our players, with 2-0 wins over Surrey and two Oxford pairs.

Next up would be a familiar setting with Kirby Ngan beginning her 2023 singles run, aiming to go one better than her silver from last year, taking on Oxford’s Sophie Taylor who was part of the pair that Liang and Lado beat in the doubles. The round of 32 match saw a comfortable win for the number one seeded Kirby, 21-7 and 21-5, before another 2-0 win in the round of 16 – this time 21-12, 21-11 against Derby’s Katie Bicknell. Now just one win from the semi-finals, Toni Woods of UWS stood in her way. However, Ngan, the Nottingham scholar moved up another level to cruise into the last four with a 2-0 (21-9, 21-1) win. Ngan’s Nottingham club mate, Aimie Whiteman was also entered in the singles winning against Alexa Yihan from Exeter in the opening round to set-up a clash against Queen Mary’s Alexandra Oprisan for a place in the quarter finals. Unfortunately, despite a spirited showing from our Nottingham scholar, it would be the 3/4 seeded Queen Mary player who would advance to the last 8.

The opening rounds of the men’s and mixed doubles were the last to be played with the pairs of Harry Lines and Raymond Chong, Harry Goode and Jacob Weekes, and second ranked Sam Smith and Perry Ng in action in the men’s doubles. Whilst the mixed doubles sees double duty for certain players with pairings of Sam Smith and Sian Kelly, Perry Ng and Victoria Liang, and Harry Goode and Natasha Lado. All pairings won their evening matches to join their #GreenandGold team mates on finals day tomorrow.

Climbing

Climbers tackle the bouldering wall at the Climbing Works

The Climbing competition got underway on Saturday with our athletes competing in one of the World’s largest bouldering centres – the Climbing Works, Sheffield. Nottingham students spent the day tackling a variety of problems and challenging themselves against some of top climbers from around the U.K.  The Climbing finals took place on Saturday evening at 8pm with all the action available live and free-to-air on BUCS TV.

It would turn out to be an incredible evening for the #GreenandGold with Emma Futcher picking up a landmark bronze medal, whilst another was added in the team event! This is an incredible feat for Emma and the club as they become some of the very first athletes from the University of Nottingham to win BUCS Nationals medals in the sport of climbing.

Tomorrow, we move into the final day of the Championships with action across 3 sports and everything still to play/compete for.  We hope to see the #GreenandGold build on their current medal tally of 3 silver and 1 bronze at this years BUCS Nationals 2023.

In the meantime, make sure you head over to our social channels to congratulate out students on their success.

You can follow the University of Nottingham’s progress in the BUCS Nationals on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds. There will also be regular updates on our BUCS Nationals website and social media channels.

The action is also brought to you live via BUCS TV.

The post BUCS Nationals 2023 – Super Saturday Round-up appeared first on Sport at UoN.

2023 is the 10th Anniversary year of BUCS Nationals! The individual Athletics, Badminton, Climbing and Swimming Championships are held once again in the city of Sheffield over the weekend of the 24-26 February 2023.

On Friday morning, Nottingham’s student-athletes, coaches, physios and support staff headed up to the Steel City for 3-days of competitive action hoping to leave a legacy and create some special memories in #GreenandGold.

Over the past 10 years, Nationals has thrown up some truly memorable moments across all the sports. Whether it’s the Li Lian Yang badminton dynasty, being crowned National Champions in Karate or smashing  new PBs in the pool – the event has never failed to deliver.

It was a fantastic start to 2023 for Simran Kaur, the Chemistry student won a silver medal in her 60M T46 Sprint title on Friday evening to firmly place Nottingham on the medal table. In the pool, the Women’s 400m Freestyle team also qualified for Saturday’s A final to provide the perfect start to the 10th Anniversary of the competition.

Athletics

Kwesi Biney crosses the line in the 60M Men’s Sprint

In the 60m heats, William Wilshere qualified for the semi-finals with a brilliant time of  7.03 seconds but despite a fast start out of the blocks, a close and competitive race saw him narrowly miss out on a place in the final. Despite the result, Wilshere can be proud of his efforts here at BUCS Nationals opening day with some very competitive times.

Kwesi Biney also ran a fantastic heat, finishing in 3rd place, but his time of 7.13 seconds wasn’t fast enough to allow him to progress to the semi-finals.

In the women’s 60m Eleanor Callaghan-Inge and Zoe Drake faced a tough field.

Both Nottingham runners finished 5th in their heats for the Women’s 60M hurdles, with Carmen Williams (9.16 secs) and Shakanya Osahon (9.95 secs) registering strong times on the track.

The closing performances of the day belonged to Simran Kaur, who’s T46 Silver medal proved to be the highlight of the action at EIS. The Nottingham student now has a BUCS gold and a BUCS silver medal over the past 2 years from this event, fighting back from an ACL injury which kept her out of the sport. She was cheered home by a jubilant crowd in the stands and the result crowned a wonderful day for University of Nottingham athletics.

Adding to the result Simran told us that she is now ready to “I’m happy with today and I’m now looking forward to pushing my full focus into BUCS Outdoors.”

Badminton

On the first day of competition, University of Nottingham Sport had a small amount of entrants into the qualifying rounds of the 2023 BUCS Badminton National Championships, before the remainder of the #GreenandGold enter the main competition tomorrow. Saturday’s entrants include silver medallists from last year, Sian Kelly and Kirby Ngan who will be looking to go one better this year.

Speaking ahead of the championships, Head of Performance Badminton at the University of Nottingham Martyn Lewis said; “I think there is a good chance that we can have another successful weekend this year. I hope that the players entered come out and enjoy their badminton, and results will be what they will be. If they play well, I’m confident that they can be successful.”

Looking firmly at Friday’s matches in the qualifiers (round of 128 matches through to the round of 64, to determine tomorrow’s last 32), Lewis told us; “It’s a quieter day today but we do have Romilly and Jacob playing, so I hope that they do well and can get through. Let’s see how it goes – it’s sport! However, I think that if they perform how I know that they can, I’m sure that they will do well today.”

Once underway, Friday’s play started emphatically for the University of Nottingham as the aforementioned Jacob Weekes entered the qualifying stage facing off against Lincoln’s Jonathan Reilly. Showing no signs of Nationals nerves Weekes took a comfortable 2-0 victory in the opening match of the weekend to put him into the round of 64, before dispatching Danny Chen of Durham by the same score. This left Weekes needing to defeat Alex Lewis in the final round of qualification to extend his 2023 Nationals journey to Saturday. Unfortunately though, the main draw would be one step too far as he succumbed to a very close 2-1 defeat (17-21, 21-10, 11-21) to his Cambridge opponent.

Weekes’ teammate Romilly Calvert was sat courtside during his second match trying to release some of her own pre-match nerves by cheering him on to victory. Calvert was scheduled to face Ailar Ashfari in her qualifying opener but received a walkover into the round of 64. A tough match-up awaited Romilly with Samvida Venkatesh of Oxford pushing her to three sets, but Romilly took a 2-1 victory (15-21, 21-11, 21-18). However, as with team mate Jacob Weekes, the main draw proved out of reach as Jennifer Laverty of Strathclyde would be the one moving on with a 2-0 (14-21, 19-21) win.

We look forward to the main draw tomorrow with University of Nottingham’s seeded players entering the competition, including scholar and last year’s silver medallist Kirby Ngan entering as the top seed in the Women’s Singles.

Swimming

Our swimmers descended on Ponds Forge for the opening session of the Long-Course Swimming Championship. The Friday evening is a  combination of Heats for our freestyle team and straight to final Freestyle events.

We caught up with Joseph Standford, Director of the Coaching at Nova Centurion and Head Coach at University of Nottingham.

“The BUCS Long Course Championship is super exciting but also incredibly tough. We are under no illusion as to how strong the field is but  we are bringing a fresh coaching team here and the introduction of Glen Smith to the staff provides us with a lot of coaching experience at this level. BUCS long course is really tough and there are a lot of great swimmers here to overcome. Obviously we have a fantastic set of swimmers who are supported by Nova with us, so it’ll be an exciting weekend for our team!” 

Constantinos Hadjiconstansis dives into his leg of the 4x100m Freestyle at Ponds Forge

Women’s  400m Freestyle Team – 3rd in heat, Qualified 5th overall and progress to Saturdays A finals.

Men’s 400M Freestyle Team – 7th in the heat with a time of 3.38:74 and will head into the B final

Mixed 4*100m Medley – Result TBC
________________________________

It has been a fitting opening day to the 2023 BUCS Nationals with fantastic performances from the entire team.

The stage is well and truly set for a tomorrow’s ‘Super Saturday’ of student sport in Sheffield.

You can follow the University of Nottingham’s progress in the BUCS Nationals on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds. There will also be regular updates on our BUCS Nationals website and social media channels.

The action is also brought to you live via BUCS TV.

The post BUCS Nationals 2023 – Friday Round-up appeared first on Sport at UoN.