Sheffield hosts busy 2016 BUCS Championships
Students from across the UK descended on All Saints School in Sheffield for the 2016 BUCS Judo Championships.
98 medals were distributed across 26 categories over the two day event.
The majority of the medals were shared amongst Anglia Ruskin University, University of Oxford, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Nottingham whilst Team Bath and Bangor University also claimed six medals in the women’s section.
Judoka ranked 1st Kyu and above kicked off day one of the event as Anglia Ruskin’s Mateja Glusac retained his -90kg title after defeating Elliot Stewart (University of Wolverhampton) in the gold medal match.
Bath’s Chloe Robyns-Landricombe was the only other judoka to defend their title at this year’s event, overcoming Jodie Caller from the University of Wolverhampton in the -57kg final.
Peter Miles was one of five medallists from the University of Oxford competing in Sheffield. Miles defeated fellow Oxonian James Fowler in the -60kg final to take the gold medal. Miles who was part of a 22 judoka strong Oxford squad, won the gold medal in the -66kg gold at last year’s event.
Loughborough University’s Rhys Thompson went one better this year winning the -100kg gold medal after claiming a silver in last year’s -90kg category.
2015 African Games bronze medallist Emmanuel Nartey defeated Sunderland’s Maciej Dlugosz in the -81kg category, which saw GB’s Jan Gosiewski take a bronze.
The Scottish universities: Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt, Stirling and St Andrews, put in a strong showing in the women’s -70kgs, -78kgs and +78kgs categories, claiming six medals in totals.
Anglia Ruskin finished above Oxford, Edinburgh and Nottingham in the men’s team event whilst Bath overcame Edinburgh, Bangor and Anglia Ruskin to top the women’s team event.
Day two of the event saw the 2nd Kyu and below grades take to the mat.
The -70kg final was an all Imperial College London affair with Praise Izinyon defeating Elizabeth Gray to take the gold.
Elsewhere last year’s -100kg silver medallist Vlad Vovk (Durham) claimed the gold medal at the expense of Northumbria’s Mark Faulkner, whilst Blythe Hall in the -57kgs was the University of Bradford’s only gold medal of the weekend.
Oxford’s Shan Quah won a gold medal in her first ever judo competition when she finished in first place in the -63kg category.
Finalists from the event are invited to compete in the European University Games taking place in Croatia this summer.
Well done to all the university judoka who took part in the event.
A complete list of results from the 2016 BUCS Championships can be found here.
