Sport Editor, Charles Metcalfe, brings you the insight on some of Loughborough’s sporting achievements over this summer.
Loughborough’s summer of sport ended on an ever-rising high. The British Universities and Colleges Sport league (BUCS) was won for the 38th time since its beginning 38 years ago. Any 2018/19 freshers will notice that this has become a little bit of a family joke at the university. Media have previously laughed about the high concentrations of Loughborough students in international competitions such as the Commonwealth Games, but we believe the call-up must be coming any day now.
Exemplifying consistent victories across the board, the Loughborough Lightning women’s cricket team powered through to the final of the 2018 Super League in late August. The girls had steam-rolled much of the opposition, defeating Lancashire Thunder, Surrey Stars, and Western Storm by nine wickets during the course of the season. Unfortunately Surrey Stars worked their way back up from this defeat to take Lightning on in the final, turning their previous loss on its head. Despite the loss, the season’s results provide an auspicious foundation for next year’s innings.
International football brought similar ends to a well-fought tournament, whilst the Berlin European Championships brought some consolation. The GB team placed second beneath a strong Russian team, despite obtaining the most overall medals by a wide margin. As always with these international events, Loughborough students, alumni, and affiliates were heavily involved on the competition floor. Marie Wattel won the first medal in Loughborough’s name in the pool with a French side taking gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay. The swimming success continued with Loughborough-based Adam Peaty grabbing gold in the 100m breaststroke with an unbelievable achievement and new world record of 57.10 seconds; following close behind was Loughborough student James Wilby who took silver. Success spread further to the track and field with students Kirsten McAslan, Morgan Lake, Chris O’Donnell, and Dianne Marie-Hardy all solidifying their strong positions within the athletics community.
Looking forward to the forthcoming year, Matt Edwards has been selected as the new captain for the National League 1 rugby side. He says, “We have a great squad and coaching set up, and I know I speak on behalf of everyone when I say we can’t wait for the National 1 and BUCS Super Rugby campaigns to kick off”.
Sam Bailey (2ndRow) says, “Matty has been a leader in the team before he was made captain for this season, so it was a natural choice. He’s a good captain but an even better bloke, always there to give advice and have a laugh with, and he’s always one of the hardest working guys on the team”.
“There’s a real buzz around the team at the start of this season, a tough pre-season has meant that we’re all at the top of our game”.
So it looks as though we’re in for a treat this year with more heavily-supported home games down on the front crumb. Grab your Dark Fruits from the LSU, follow the distant chants of ‘Loughborough walks on water’, and blow your lungs out when one of our boys touches down beyond the try-line.
With the new season fast approaching, don’t forget to check out the relevant AU Twitter pages to find out when trials for each sport will be taking place. For avid footballers and keen freshers, sign-up for trials is mandatory so head over to the Loughborough AU webpage to put your name down.
For more info, visit the Loughborough Sports website.
