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The University of Nottingham has secured seven medals and a fifth place finish at this year’s British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) swimming championships in Sheffield.
Fresh from her silver relay medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Jess Sylvester blew away the field to take gold in the 100 metre Freestyle and 50 metre Butterfly finals.
The Biochemistry student also won a silver medal in the 50 metre freestyle event, while teammate Kate Ambridge won two medals in personal best times with bronze in the 200 metre Individual Medley (200IM) and 100 metre Butterfly (100 fly) event.
The team then secured fifth place in the championships with two more silver medals in the women’s Medley and Freestyle relays. Jess and Kate took part in both relay races, where they were joined by Emma Oliver and Alex Diamond in the Medley relay and Hayley Baker and Emily Pollard in the Freestyle race.
Pleased with her results and those of her team, Kate said: “All the finals were of a very high standard, considering the winner of the 200IM was a finalist in that event at the recent Commonwealth Games in Delhi. In the 100 fly I swam faster than I did last year when I won it, which shows the standard was higher this year.
“Overall the girl’s team came second behind Loughborough and with the boys included we came joint fifth. I think this is a great achievement as we were the highest placed university who is not funded by British Swimming because we are not an Intensive Training Centre.”
Jess added: “I was really pleased with my performance as I have only just got back from the Commonwealths and have not been back in training for long. The quality of competition was very high, with some of the same opposition as those who I competed against in Delhi, so I was really pleased to come away with two golds and three silvers.
“As a team I think we exceeded expectations as we were competing against universities who employ full time coaches with access to 50 metre pools. The girls’ team is very strong at the moment; we beat Loughborough to come first at a competition in March, so it was good to maintain that standard.”
Racing against the biggest field ever to take part in the championships with a total of 1177 students, the overall result marked a good achievement for The University of Nottingham.
The points gained will now contribute towards the University’s final BUCS ranking at the end of the year. Last year saw Nottingham finish seventh in the overall standings, with the University aiming to secure a top five finish before 2015.
Following the success, Director of Sport Dan Tilley said: “This is a fantastic achievement for all the swimmers, who have a rigorous training schedule to balance with their academic and general student lives. Therefore it is good to see them getting just return for all their efforts. Jess is a fabulous ambassador for the University and it is great to see we have other talented swimmers such as Kate rapidly progressing.”
Full results from the competition can be found at:http://www.swimmingvolunteers.org/bucs/results/sc10/index2.htm
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham, described by The Times as “the nearest Britain has to a truly global university”, has award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. It is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and the QS World University Rankings. The University is committed to providing a truly international education for its 39,000 students, producing world-leading research and benefiting the communities around its campuses in the UK and Asia.
More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, with almost 60 per cent of all research defined as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. Research Fortnight analysis of RAE 2008 ranked the University 7th in the UK by research power.
The University’s vision is to be recognised around the world for its signature contributions, especially in global food security, energy & sustainability, and health.
More news from the University at: www.nottingham.ac.uk/news
University facts and figures at: www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/facts/factsandfigures.aspx