Loughborough Students Athletics Club stretched their lead in the women's BUCS Athletics by 16 points while the men have pulled out a 23.5 point gap to second placed Leeds Met at the end of the penultimate day.
One event which was completed on Sunday was the 400m hurdles in which Loughborough secured a two golds. Niall Flannery reigned supreme and showed his experience as he successfully defended his title.
The absence of DQ’d Meghan Beesley made way for Justine Kinney to follow in Flannery’s path and collect her first BUCS gold medal after a string of silvers in the Women’s 400mH.
Flannery and Kinney both spoke to Label after their victories.
In addition to the two golds in the hurdles, Felix Maisey-Curtis won gold in the long jump, Abi Heywood silver in the pole vault and further success came in the form of a bronze medal for Amy Campbell in the 5000m. The 2011 BUCS Cross country champion Charlotte Purdue ran away with the 5000m title but Campbell fought a two-horse race with Amy Jessops for the final step on the podium and came out on top.
The first LSAC athletes to feature on Sunday were the four competing in the heats of the men’s 110m hurdles. Ben Kelk, Alex Nwenwu, Yannick Budd and Matt Walcott all comfortably qualified with Nwenwu improving his personal best. He was only bettered in heat three by Andrew Pozzi who ran a new Championhip record and Olympic ‘A’ standard time.
Matt Walcott was forced to pull out of the semi finals in the evening session due to injury, but Kelk, Nwenwu and Budd will all have their names on the start list for the final.
Danielle Rooney also made the final in the women’s event while her training partner Dionne Samuels failed to make it past the second round.
Andy Richardson and Guy Learmonth will both be welcomed into tomorrow’s 800m final after a momentary panic that the latter may be run out after a two-man duel with Tom Bird. The women’s event will feature Carolyn Plateau as Loughborough’s only medal prospect following Abbie Vernon’s exit in the second semi-final.
Both men’s 400m representatives enjoyed relatively easy progression to the final. Despite Richard Davenport incurring a rare defeat by Jarryd Dunn, he joins Markus Hunt as they battle for the title tomorrow.
Laura Wake sailed home with ease in her 400m semi-final; giving confidence she will hopefully perform untroubled in the final round.
In the field, Felix Maisey-Curtis snuck the men’s long jump by a single centimetre; his jump of 7.38m was enough to see him claim gold. Earlier Myra Perkins had managed a first-round throw of 56.04m which surpassed the automatic qualifying distance and allowed her to get out of the cold relatively quickly.
A strong women’s pole vault quartet struggled in the chilly conditions with only Abi Haywood managing to secure a silver medal after clearing 3.60m.
Robert Mohan was one of two automatic qualifiers in group B of the men’s shot. He will hope to improve on his fourth place finish indoors earlier this year.
Current Standings:
Women's
1st Loughborough 50
2nd Leeds Met 28
3rd Bath & Birmingham 23
Men's
1st Loughborough 50
2nd Bath 26.5
3rd Birmingham 25
