BUCS Long Course 2024
Wowzers, what a weekend! Eleven swimmers, thirteen club records, and fourteen BUCS finals!
From the 23rd to the 25th of February, a determined group of Oxford Swimmers headed up to Sheffield for the 2023-24 BUCS Long Course Championships. Racing kicked off on Friday with a flurry of Club Records; Charlotte ‘record predator’ O’Leary with a 1:06.07 in the 100m Back, Jonathan ‘smooth as butter’ Rutter with 1:53.65 in the 200m Freestyle, Sophie ‘distance swimmers don’t get tired’ Lawrence with 2:11.83 in the 200 Free, and Liam ‘let me fix my hair’ Brennan with 59.73 in the 100m Back. There were also some fantastic swims from Ioan ‘TJ’ Cressey-Rodgers in the 100m fly, Caterina ‘your Italian food isn’t real Italian food’ Vanelli Coralli in the 100m back, and David ‘I’m gonna beat you’ Pugh in the 100m back. Max ‘style icon’ Anderson Loake just snuck into the B-final of the 200m Free where he finished in ninth place, and Charlotte finished in seventh place in her B-final of the 100m back. The Mixed Medley relay of Charlotte, Jonathan, Sophie, and Max scored a club record with 4:09.87, and a strategic substitution of Liam replacing Max in the final led to a very strong 9th place in the A Final.
Heading into Saturday fuelled by a team dinner at Pho, the team were ready to carry on the momentum from day 1. Charlotte, Liam and David all narrowly missed the records in the 200m backstroke, Caterina had a rapid 50m fly, Max and Molly PB’d in their 100m freestyles, and Ioan did a fantastic 50 fly. Class was in session as Jonathan put on a magnificent display in the 100m breaststroke. Another club record of 1:03.48 in the heat secured him a spot in the final, where he finished in a phenomenal 6th place amongst a world-class field. The race was so strong that he also took the 50m breaststroke record in the first half, with a split of 29.89. The Women’s Relay team, consisting of Caterina Vanelli Coralli, Charlotte O’Leary, Molly Aspinall and Sophie Lawrence, narrowly missed the club record in the heats but did enough to make the finals. They returned later with their eyes on the prize, and with four very gutsy swims in the final they scored the record with a time of 4:03.69, which also placed them third in the B-final. The Open Relay team, consisting of Jonathan, Max, Ioan and Liam Bonsell-Brennan secured a place in the A-Final where they finished in tenth place. The first swimmer in each relay, Charlotte and Jonathan, also scored 100m Freestyle records with splits of 59.73 and 51.96 respectively.
Back at the AirBnB, the crew whipped up a delicious feast of fajitas sure to provide some jet propulsion for the next day. The leftover gluten-free tortillas were also put to good use with a game that involved trying to hold a mouthful of water while being slapped violently on the cheek by a tortilla (I hope I am never invited to games night at the O’Leary’s).
On Sunday morning, Max smashed his own 400m Freestyle record with a time of 4:11.44, and David also put in a very strong swim with a time of 4:27.22. Jackson ‘Jesus’ Spry joined Liam and Caterina in the splash and dash 50m backstroke with impressive times of 29.44, 28.41, and 33.41 respectively. Jonathan and Tobermory ‘still the champion’ Mackay-Champion put on a beautiful display of breaststroke in their 200m Breaststroke with times of 2:19.58 and 2:20.65 respectively; both scoring a spot in the A-final, although Toby’s groin was playing up so he decided not to proceed. In the final, Jonathan put in another glorious swim to finish in another 6th place amongst a world-class field. Molly secured a spot in the B final of the 50m freestyle, where she finished in 7th place. Both her swims were less than 0.1 seconds behind the club record (her fastest was 27.38 and the record is 27.33), so she’ll be back next year on a mission! Charlotte broke the 50m backstroke record in the heat, then proceeded to beat her new record in the B-final with 30.17 which scored a massive second place! Ioan and Sophie both secured places in their B-finals for the 200m fly, where they both pushed through the gruelling event to finish in a fantastic eighth place.
Finally, it was time for the Medley Relays. After many discussions about which order would minimise the absence of a breaststroke specialist, the Women’s team settled on Caterina (backstroke), Charlotte (breaststroke), Sophie (butterfly) and Molly (freestyle). The team finished in 7th place in the B-final, a really strong performance from the four women after a huge weekend of racing. The Open side of Jackson (backstroke), Jonathan (breaststroke), Ioan (butterfly) and Max (freestyle) put in a major shift to cinch the A-final. In the final, Liam substituted in for Jackson and the team finished in 9th place with a club record of 3:57.46. It was a fantastic effort from the team and a great way to cap off a fantastic weekend of racing. Overall, the club finished in 10th place – an amazing effort by the eleven swimmers.
