BUCS Competition

After a reshuffled schedule, the boys kicked the BUCS 2012 swimming short course championships off with 50 free on Friday evening with great swims from Fraser Gordon, Michael Ingram and Niki Peric.  The girls got off to a good start with Catherine Wrench breaking the IC 50 free record to then beat her own time again in the first leg of the girls relay final in a time of 27.71. More success on Friday evening was brought by Caterina Brighi qualifying for the 50 bk semi final, to then swim even faster in a time of 30.91 to get our first BUCS points (and IC record) by qualifying for the final finishing in 8th place.

Read Records are broken at the BUCS Short Course Swimming in Sheffield in full

We were graced with a cold foggy Sunday morning to drive out of London with a 9-seater mini bus stacked full of bikes and triathletes. Spirits were high but there were a few nerves about.  Three of us runners had done a duathlon before and the other three were complete newbies. We arrived in good time to register, check the bikes over and put them in the transition zone.

 The girls’ race was first at 2pm and we cheered Christiane off the start before getting warmed up for ours at 2.45. At the starting line Sam, Richard and I wrestled for a place near the front.

Read BUCS Duathlon: 2mile run->10mile bike->2mile run in full

What is fives? Read on to the very end, and you could get involved and start your beautiful career.

Imperial College Fives society kicked off a promising start to the season after representing at the Universities Eton Fives Championships at Eton College on 12th November and in the BUCS Rugby Fives Championships at Marlborough College.

In fives, a ball is propelled against the walls of a special court using gloved or bare hands as though they were a racquet. Basically, you could say it was squash’s naughty ambidextrous stepsibling.

Rugby fives is very much that, a fast and furious game played with hands and can be played in doubles or singles.

Read Hi-Fives all round for Imperial College in full

So as Autumn approaches and everyone returns to college from the four corners of the globe, a special excitement has been growing amongst the dedicated and growing surfing community at Imperial. Next weekend, the club will travel down to Newquay to compete in the national university championships, known as BUCs and our team has the best chance its ever had of making a mark on this years competition.

Many people do not consider surfing to be a competitive sport, the image of a perfect beach with sun, sand and surf hardly conjures up thoughts of hard training, mental preparation and physiological warfare.

Read Surfing – Build up to the BUCS Surf champs in Newquay in full