The University of Birmingham Athletics Team achieved their best result in a decade at the British Universities Sports Association Outdoor Athletics Championships last weekend, taking home a staggering 16 medals.
In the 20-discipline event the University Sport Birmingham (USB) team, looking striking in their new kit, picked up 3 gold medals, 7 silvers and 6 bronzes. Such a vast medal hoard is made more impressive considering 15 of the squad’s athletes were missing because of injury.
A record breaking 1800 athletes competed at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham over the three-day action packed event.
The University's Women's team fought off tough competition from Bath and Brunel and ended in 3rd position with 86.5 points, only 3.5 points behind the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, and the Men’s team finished in fourth place.
It was a great all round team performance but Louise Hazel and Somto Eruche were undoubtedly the stars of the show. Louise won the hurdles and helped the relay team to 2nd, was 3rd in the long jump and 4th in the high jump whilst Somto won the 200m, was 2nd in the 100m and ran a brilliant final leg in the 4x 400m relay to power USB from 4th place to where they finished in 2nd.
Other medallists for the women's team included Claire Holme with a gold in the 10,000m along with silver medallists Hayley Beard in the 800m, Nicky Sykes in the steeplechase and also the 4x100 and 4x 400 teams. Mel Cooksey, Sinead Gutzmore and Claire Neeve furthered the collection when they picked up bronze medals in the 200m, triple jump and pole-vault respectively.
The men’s team added to the medal haul with a silver in the 5000m from Luke Gunn, who has recently returned from the Melbourne Commonwealth Games where he competed in the steeplechase. Neil Burton and Phil Ferdinand rounded things off with bronze medals in the 10,000m and triple jump.
The University's coach Bud Baldaro said "Team spirit was great and so many helped to make this a successful championship, especially athletes who ran the relay heats and then moved out of teams for finals. It is vital now that we work off this success for the future and very important that USB has a presence at the English Schools Athletic Association and Amateur Athletics Association under 20s Championships."
ENDS
Further information:
Lucy Hood – Media, PR and Promotions Officer, University Sport Birmingham
tel: 0121 414 2262 / email: l.hood@bham.ac.uk
Rachel Robson – Head of News Team, University of Birmingham
Tel: 0121 414 6681 / mob: 07789 921165 / email: r.a.robson@bham.ac.uk