AUTHOR

Jack Lipman

On Friday the 1st of May a large contingent of Cambridge athletes made the long journey to Cardiff for what ended up being a very memorable BUCS 2026 weekend. For the first time in recent years CUAC and CUHH athletes across all events travelled and stayed in accommodation together, leading to amazing team spirit and support across the weekend.

Saturday morning was kicked off by a sub 11 auto Q for Pelumi in the Men's 100m. This was swiftly followed by Beth and Cameron securing comfortable auto Qs in the 1500, with Ewan just missing out as the fastest overall non-qualifier in a tough heat.

President Jess put on a stunning performance in the 400 hurdles, running a huge PB of 1:05.33 which puts her within touching distance of the Blues time! This was followed by James McCulloch doubling down on his Blues time from a few weeks ago, just missing out on finals qualification by 0.2s.

The afternoon saw Pelumi in the 100 semis followed by a strong run from Cat in the 800. It was at this point that the sky darkened and heavens opened, and what followed can only be described as Cambridge 'wanting it more'...

In the Men's 800 Tim and Jack both ran big PBs to secure qualification to Sunday's semi-finals. This was swiftly followed by Sunshine, Liv, Rhys and Sol in the 400, with Rhys running a new PB and Sol and Liv both running under the Blues standard for the first time to qualify to the semi-finals! The day was finished with Rosie running a great PB of 7:12 in the 2k steeple, bringing us to a total of 7 PBs in the space of a single afternoon!

Sunday morning saw Alice and Tori in the 100 hurdles, followed by Georgia and Tori (again!) in the long jump. Leonie breezed through qualifications in the high jump, with Sunshine also jumping close to her PB. In the 200 Alice dipped under 28s barrier in a new PB, with Nausicaa also putting in a strong performance back from recent injury. Pelumi was also back in action, qualifying smoothly for the 200 semis on Monday whilst Leonie threw a PB of 46.07 in the hammer. This was followed by a great tactical run from Beth in the 1500 semis, qualifying for the final in a new PB of 4:28. Liv/Sol, Tim/Jack and Cam also ran in the 400, 800 and 1500 semis respectively, with Cam just missing out on qualifying to the final with a new PB of 3:50. The evening brought the greatly anticipated relay heats, with both the men's and women's 4x400 teams qualifying to Monday's final with amazing runs!

Monday brought a great day of finals, and some amazing performances across the board. Max and Owen both put in strong runs in the 5k, followed by Tamsin and Ana Sophia in the afternoon. Leonie qualified for the shot final, while Alex and Michael went in the discus and hammer, with Michael throwing a big PB in both! Esther put in a great performance to finish 5th in the pole vault final, while Pelumi ran an amazing 200 semi in a new PB of 21.65, followed up with a windy 21.63 in the final. Beth ran for the 3rd time this weekend in the 1500 final, running a strong race to finish 10th overall. The BUCS weekend was concluded with the greatly anticipated 4x400 finals. The women ran a great time of 4:00, improving on their qualifying performance from Sunday. The final race of the day saw the men's team run 3:18 to finish 5th, concluding the day on a massive high.

It was great to see such good team spirit and support from everyone across events. Thank you to everyone who came to watch, and special thanks to Phil who came to coach and support the whole weekend!

See you at Varsity!

Jack