BUCS released the list of entries for the BUCS Outdoor Athletics Championships yesterday, which confirmed how many athletes each university would have competing at the Olympic Stadium on May 4-7.
The Championships have been hugely popular this year due to the competition being held at the Olympic Stadium in London as well as doubling up as an official London Prepares Series Test Event.
Loughborough Students Athletics Club (LSAC) have been guaranteed 94 entries across both the men’s and women’s events at the championships, a much larger number than had been originally expected.
However, LSAC will still have some major selection headaches ahead of the BUCS trials which are due to take place on Saturday April 28. In particular, LSAC can only select a single male 400m hurdle runner, an event which LSAC currently has five Great Britain representatives in various age groups.
Similarly, 2010 World Junior Bronze 4x400m medallists Nathan Wake and Daniel Putnam, and 2011 BUCS 400m silver medallist Markus Hunt will also be competing for just the single spot in the men’s 400m flat event.
Meanwhile in the women’s 400m hurdles, where two positions are available, 2009 GB Junior Lauren Bouchard, whose personal best of 58.4 behind World Student Games representatives Meghan Beesley and Justine Kinney is unlikely to make the competition while Winchester student, Zoe Beauvoisin’s entry has been accepted despite a personal best of 80.9 seconds.
Bouchard tweeted; “No space at BUCS for me, good job I have a lane in the UKA race. Plus only one space in the mens hurdles #whatajoke”
LSAC Captain, Michael Baker told Label;
“What makes it increasingly frustrating as Loughborough Athletics Club Captain, is that athletes who have devoted years of their life to the sport and have achieved great things in the process, have been let down by the system and might miss out on the biggest BUCS of them all.”
On the entry list, BUCS stated;
“All events reached capacity and work has been undertaken to extend field pools and add extra lanes to track events to allow as many athletes as possible to compete.”
