University of Nottingham's Karate team dominant after long awaited return to BUCS National Championship

The Annual British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) National Championships was recently held over the weekend of the 23th-25th February 2024. The University of Nottingham secured 35 medals at the Championships, including 7 gold medals (6 belonging to Nottingham’s Karate team).

Each year the University of Nottingham takes over 100 student athletes to Sheffield for 3-days of top-class sport. The athletes compete across 3 venues: English Institute of Sport, Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, and the Climbing Works

Over 5,000 students compete for individual medals in different sports which over includes athletics, badminton, climbing, fencing, swimming, and karate.

Fencing enjoyed a record medal haul which included Nottingham’s first ever Men’s Epee Gold Medal for James Jeal.

UoN Sport Athletics Scholar, Daniel Goriola, who was competing in his first National Championships, secured gold in the 60M hurdles with a time of 7.72 seconds and he was followed by a sensational bronze medal run from Simran Kaur in the T46 60m Sprint.

There was further success in the pool as Para swimmer, Aliya Bacakoglu, won two silver medals with outstanding swims in the Women’s 100m Backstroke and Women’s 200m IM. Owen Say also bagged 3 medals in the Men’s Open 50 (bronze),100m (silver) and 300m (bronze) Freestyle to cap off an impressive short and long course BUCS Season. There was even time for Cameron White to break the Club 50m breaststroke record twice in the same meet!

Over at EIS it was a gruelling  competition for Nottingham’s Badminton players who played long into Saturday and Sunday evening. Their reward was a flurry of medals on day 3 with Chloe Dennis and Natasha Lado (Women’s Doubles) and Kirby Ngan (Women’s Singles) both reaching their respective gold medal finals only to be pipped at the post.

On the other side of Sheffield our team of 10 climbers tackled a range of bouldering problems of varying difficulties over at  ‘The  Climbing Works’ , with Emma Futcher narrowly missing out on a shot at the finals (and a podium) by a single point.

There was also a glorious return to BUCS Nationals for Nottingham’s Karate Cub. The reigning Champions returned to Sheffield and they didn’t disappoint landing 6 Gold medals including Team Kata, Women’s Team Kumite, Men’s Team Kumite, Men’s Kata Individual (James Harrison), Women’s Team Kata Individual (Jordanna Williams) and Men’s Individual Kumite (James Walker). The club not only took the Team title but they also hoovered up 18 medals in the process over 2 brilliant days of competition.

You can catch-up on the University of Nottingham’s progress across Nationals weekend on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds. There will also be updates on our BUCS Nationals website and social media channels.

A full list of results can be found below:

Athletics

• Men's 60M Hurdles: Gold (Daniel Goriola)
• Women's T46 60M Sprint: Bronze (Simran Kaur)

Badminton

• Men's Doubles: Bronze (Harry Goode/Samuel Smith)
• Women's Doubles: Silver (Chloe Dennis/Natasha Lado)
• Mixed Doubles: Bronze (Chloe Dennis/Sam Smith)
• Women's Doubles: Bronze (Rachel Woods/Amie Whiteman) 
• Women's Singles: Silver (Kirby Ngan)

Fencing

• Men's Epee: Gold (James Jeal)
• Women's Foil: Bronze (Holly Thompson)
• Men's Foil: Bronze (Wilf Broughton)
• Women's Epee: Bronze (Grace O'Neil)

Karate

• Open Kata: Gold
• Women's Team Kumite: Gold
• Men's Team Kumite: Gold
• Men's Kata Individual: Gold (James Harrison)
• Men's Kata Individual: Silver (Dylan Traves)
• Men's Kata Individual: Bronze (Oliver Wycherly )
• Women's Kata Individual: Gold (Jordanna Williams)
• Women's Kata Individual: Silver(Jess Maitland)
• Women's Kata Individual: Bronze (Amelia Clow)
• Men's Individual Kumite (-67kg): Silver (Edward Mulhall)
• Men's Individual Kumite (+84kg): Silver (Ryan Dewhurst)
• Men's Individual Kumite (-75kg): Gold (James Walker)
• Men's Individual Kumite (-67kg): Bronze (Liyoung Roka Magar)
• Men's Individual Kumite (+84kg): Bronze (William Huke)
• Women's Individual Kumite (-55kg): Silver (Jenna Cato)
• Women's Individual Kumite (+68kg) Bronze (Kylie Sokis)
• Women's Individual Kumite (-68kg) Bronze (Rebecca Adir)
• Women's Individual Kumite (-68kg) Bronze (Francesca Squiteri)

Swimming

• Para 100M Butterfly: Silver (Aliya Bacakoglu)
• Para 200M IM: Silver (Aliya Bacakoglu)
• Para 100M Freestyle: Silver (Owen Say)
• Para 100M Breaststroke: Bronze (Aliya Bacakoglu)
• Para 50M Freestyle: Bronze (Owen Say)
• Para 400M Freestlye: Bronze (Owen Say)

Attention will now turn to BUCS Big Wednesday, the end of the road for the BUCS team sports, with over 50 matches set to be hosted by Loughborough on Wednesday 20th March 2024.