University of Nottingham were shortlisted for several awards at the 2023 BUCS Awards Dinner, hosted on Thursday 13th July at the University of Leeds.
Yet again, the #GreenandGold have excelled across the board and to be shortlisted for 6 out of 12 awards is a testament to the hard work and dedication of students, staff, and volunteers at the University of Nottingham.
Over the course of the evening, the University of Nottingham won 5 awards; Team of the Year, Sportsperson of the Year, Special Recognition Award, Unsung Hero Award, and the Digital Engagement Award.
The event celebrated the achievements of a variety of people including student athletes, both individual and teams, who have excelled in their respective sporting endeavors, as well as those volunteers and administrators who have gone above and beyond to progress the sports provision of their institution of sport.
University of Nottingham 2023 BUCS Award Winners
Team of the Year - Women's Table Tennis 1st team
The University of Nottingham Women’s 1s Table Tennis Team have dominated BUCS Table Tennis this year and are unbeaten in all competitions. The team were crowned Premier League North Champions and Women’s National Champions and did not lose any singles or doubles rubbers all year. The team accumulated 153 BUCS points across league, cup and individuals.
They have convincingly won everything that they were eligible for, which is testament to their hard work and dedication to excellence demonstrated throughout their time at the University. All players, captains and coaches have shown what high-performance university sport is about and have been incredible role models for other players and sports teams at the University of Nottingham. The side have also recently cemented the past year as a phenomenal success by claiming multiple championships at the European Universities Championships, winning the Women’s Team, Doubles and Singles gold medals, proving themselves to be at the very top of European University Table Tennis.
Sportsperson of the Year - Gina Kennedy
Gina Kennedy is an international squash player who studied an MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Nottingham. In that time Gina made an unprecedented rise from 185 in the world rankings to inside the world’s top 8. To date Gina has an impressive 72%-win rate on the PSA world tour, one of the highest win rates of any player, making 15 finals and achieving 11 titles in that time, the highly regarded Cleveland Classic and Scottish Open as well as qualifying for the season-ending CIB PSA World Tour Finals in Cairo for the first time (an exclusive event featuring only the world’s top 8 players).
After anchoring the University of Nottingham Women’s 1st Team to Championship victory at BUCS Big Wednesday in March 2022, Gina was selected in May to represent England at the ESF European Team Championships in Eindhoven. Gina’s hard work was rewarded as she signed off her university career with a selection to represent Team England at the home Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in the women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles events. After a series of tough fixtures, Gina claimed a magnificent gold medal and, in the process, became the first ever English woman to win the Commonwealth Games singles title.
After winning the award Gina said "Wow, I am absolutely over the moon to have won BUCS Sportsperson of the Year. It was such a strong group of nominees so it is an absolute honour to have won this award - I genuinely can't believe it! I want to say a BIG thank you to the University of Nottingham for believing in me and supporting me in every possible way. It takes a village to perform as a professional athlete and UoN played a big part in making my dreams a reality."
Special Recognition Award - Fergus Stevens
Fergus’ leadership has been what makes him stand out. His ability to get the most out of his committee both from the Hockey club and Movember. His passion and determination to make the most out of his university experience and his desire to have a real impact has stood him apart from others and this was recognised by BUCS at the Awards.
His ability to manage his diverse workload has been outstanding - conducting his 2 key volunteer roles with exceptional quality all alongside studying for an MSc in Mathematical Physics and captaining the Wales U21 squad.
He has always been proactive in driving forward change, especially around men’s mental health and club culture. His passion, leadership and determination have led to real change within UoN sport and the Hockey club. The introduction of UoN “Let's Talk” programme was as direct result of Fergus approaching the Sports department to run a men’s mental health in sport talk – with support from one of his first team players, who had struggled with his mental health whilst at university. The panel of one student and two alumni talked openly, honestly and emotionally about their experiences with mental health.
Fergus has led the UoN Movember campaign for the last 3 years. Under his leadership, the UoN Movember team have raised over £265,000. In his first year as lead they raised £116,000, a 340% increase on the previous year's total. Fergus successfully maximised UoN Sport's platform to profile men’s mental health and how sport, and our linked welfare campaigns, can support all our community to look after their wellbeing.
Unsung Hero - Lynn Turton
Lynn Turton is one of the most respected and committed institutional administrators in the sector, who has devoted a significant number of hours well above and beyond her role to support students and BUCS in the delivery of the BUCS programme for over 17 years.
Lynn coordinates one of the largest volumes of BUCS activity of any institution, supporting students in every way from organising key education workshops such as captains training (delivering to 150 captains and 40 student committees) to taking a collaborative approach to working with other IA’s to ensure that many issues and appeals that could potentially reach BUCS are dealt with and fixtures get played smoothly, without the need for escalation. When you consider that Lynn delivers around 1600 fixtures per year and has conceded only 2 walkovers this season, the impact of her commitment to students and BUCS over 17 years is hugely significant.
In addition to all the above, Lynn also gives her time to support the wider development of BUCS through membership on competitions group (which she has been involved with for 4 years as East Midlands rep) and BUCS regional forums. Lynn provides a balanced and collaborative approach to issues and has helped to drive the development of BUCS competition and regulation at a national level on issues from league and competition structure development through to supporting the development of BUCS play.
BUCS Digital Engagement Award
Known for its grow a ‘Mo’ challenges, Movember are a leading charity tackling men’s health issues including mental health and suicide prevention. Having raised over £265,000 previously, University of Nottingham Sport set out in November 2023 to maximise the platform and our digital reach to profile men’s mental health and how sport, and our linked welfare campaigns, can support everyone to look after their wellbeing. This was by turning our primary social media channel - Instagram - black and white throughout the month of November, as well as support a number of different initiatives from across the department.
University of Nottingham Sport are delighted with the impact our 2023 Movember campaign has had, from a marked growth in digital engagement around men’s mental health to increases in engagement with our Moves+ app and in person Men’s Health Active programme events, designed to build community and support students.
Runners Up
Coach of the Year - Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong is the Head of Lacrosse for the Men’s and Ladies programmes at the University of Nottingham, with a combined membership of around200 members across 3 Men’s and 6 Ladies Teams. This year, Mike has gone above and beyond what has been expected by the department and both clubs in his delivery.
Mike has created a club who not only maintain highly competitive performance at the highest level with both 1st teams winning BUCS 6s, going unbeaten and winning the Premier North, and making the National Championship Finals, but also through our teams going down the BUCS structure. This has been demonstrated by all 7 out of our 8 Lacrosse Teams finishing in the top 2 of their respective BUCS Leagues.
Mike demonstrated his willingness to go over and above to support his clubs when the Ladies Lacrosse Club devastatingly lost one of their 2nd Team players to suicide prior to Christmas. An event that hit the club incredibly hard, but as is true to his nature, Mike and his coaching team lead on student support through the provision of support groups, club communications and tailoring the following weeks club training and fixtures to ensure it was the perfect balance of the club being together and giving the students the opportunity to grieve.
Speaking to UoN Sport, Matt Nicholson (UoN Club and Coach Development Manager) said:
“What stands Mike out above other coaches is his unwavering commitment to player welfare and wellbeing, he is a leader in nurturing a values-based club culture where individuals feel valued as people, above all else. In such a challenging year off the field, Mike has gone above and beyond, and we could not have wished for a better person to have stood side by side supporting our students."
Everyone at University of Nottingham Sport would like to extend a huge congratulations to everyone in the #GreenandGold family on their well-deserved nominations and award wins! We would also like to acknowledge everyone involved in helping to make 2023 another magnificent year for sport at the University of Nottingham - from players and coaches to operational and support staff - thank you!
You can find out more about the Performance Sport programme at the University of Nottingham
by clicking here.
Posted on Friday 14th July 2023