BUCS Long Course 2022
BUCS Long Course was the return of Long Course racing for OUSC after the 2 year covid pandemic.
The weekend saw a fantastic weekend of swimming, with 12 Blues Times swims, 18 PBs, 3 Club Records broken and one person’s special 10 year anniversary of swimming at BUCS.
Storm Eunice was not the only storm hitting Sheffield on Friday 18th February. The Men’s 4×100 freestyle relay smashed their heats, safely securing a spot in the B Final and narrowly missing out on the OUSC Club Record.
Saturday Morning saw Sophie Lawrence and Max Anderson Loake in the 200 Freestyle. Both dug deep and started the day with PBs and Blues Times.
Louisa Zolkiewski’s 10 year BUCS anniversary started with an epic 50 backstroke. It was a club record, blues time and PB all in one. She swam the race with style, finishing in a time of 31.76 and coming away from the race with a selection of wonderful photos taken by the BUCS official photographer.
Up in the 50 back was David Pugh and Jackson Spry, both having fantastic swims. David was back in the pool, later in the day this time swimming a 200 Back. Another brilliant swim from David, securing his first ever Blues Time and Personal Best swim.
Zoe Faure Beaulieu, Nick Lim and Emma Madden were up in the 50 breast. Zoe came away from her swim with her first Blues Time of the season, and a British Championships Qualifying time. Nick Lim smashed his race, getting a personal best. Nick Lim and Zoe Faure Beaulieu both also had fantastic swims on the 100 breast on the Sunday.
Andrew Hong braved it on the long course 400 IM. Going out strong in the Blues Time for the 100 fly, Andrew showed his strength of fitness finishing the race in a time just outside his PB.
Deryn Cressey-Rodgers and Louisa Zolkiewski were up in the 50 Free. After Louisa’s fantastic 50 back earlier in the day, we were expecting great things and great things were, in fact, delivered with a second swim under the Blues Time in one day. Deryn’s swim was also a personal best. The men, Declan Pang and Matty Johnson were up next in the 50 Free and both swam personal best swims, with Matty swimming 14.3% faster than he has ever done before. Declan licked the blues time.
The day finished with the B Final of the Men’s 4×100 Relay. The Men: Andrew Hong, Matty Johnson, Declan Pang, and Max Anderson Loake, had a cracking race, finishing 8th overall, and improving on their time from the heat.
Sunday morning started with Sophie Lawrence and Andrew Hong both stepping up to the 200 fly. Both finished just outside of their PBs in Blues Time swims, and Andrew secured a spot in the final.
Matty and Declan were up in the 100 free. Declan was fast off the blocks, but even faster in the second 50 and Matty had fun.
Max Underwood won his heat in the 200 IM in a PB swim with a very strong breaststroke leg.
Max Anderson Loake also smashed his heat in the 400 Free. Swimming a PB swim and another Blues Time and achieving his first OUSC Club record.
One record wasn’t enough for Louisa Zolkiewski. Swimming 50 fly in a time of 29.90, she smashed the club record in a PB swim attaining her third blues time of the weekend.
The last race of the weekend for OUSC was Andrew Hong’s 200 Fly final. Andrew went out strong, and came back even stronger in a PB time of 2:06.65, finishing 5th overall. A fantastic result.
Well done to everyone who swam, very promising looking forward to a huge shoe-ing at the Rosenblatt Pool next weekend!!
