WGEL athletes excel at BUCS
WGEL athletes were representing their universities over the Bank Holiday Weekend in the BUCS outdoor championships at Chelmsford. Ché Richards won the long jump ahead of club-mate Samuel Khogali, with silver medals for Ellis Greatrex at 400m and Emma Botham in the discus and a bronze for Ellie McCarthy in the pole vault.
While Samuel Khogali went into the long jump final as the reigning UK indoor champion, Ché Richards had placed ahead of him in the BUCS indoors the week prior to this national glory. Ché qualified strongly with a seasons best of 7.47, but on paper there was little to choose between the top 5 qualifiers on this year’s form. In the final however the two Woodford athletes dominated, with Ché taking an early lead with 7.31, versus 7.27 for Samuel, before extending to 7.61 in round 2. Samuel kept in touch with 7.49 in the third but was unable to improve, which gave the Trinidadian international his third BUCS title. Ché left to run in the 4x100m relay but Samuel was unable to overhaul the winning distance.
Another event with 2 WGEL finalists was the discus, though both Emma Botham and Precious Hamliton struggled in qualifying. Emma had two fouls before winning her pool on her final attempt (43.96) while Precious also only had one valid effort (38.47). Emma’s second round 44.01 was sufficient to take second in the final despite only one other valid throw, while Precious finished 6th in 41.12. Another to struggle in qualifying was Chiara Okereke, who coming off an injury was 12th and last into the hammer final with 43.61. The following day the Italian was much more competitive, with her 49.47 2nd round attempt, the second best competition she has had in this county, making the final 8.
Ellie McCarthy had the hardest task to try and win her event as she faced Olympic bronze medallist Holly Bradshaw in the pole vault. Ellie was not overawed, with the Irish and Northern Irish international clearing 4.00m at the second attempt to take bronze before Bradshaw went on to achieve 4.50.
Ellis Greatrex was looking to improve on his second place indoors at 400m and was able to run a comfortable heat before finishing 2nd in his semi-final in 47.78, the second fastest qualifying time. He committed hard over the first 200m to try and reverse the semi-final placings and while unable to do so was rewarded with a clear silver medal in his fastest time since 2019 of 47.24. HCA Ahmed Abdulle had already picked up a BUCS silver medal the previous weekend over 10000m but was unable to add another at the main championships, finishing 5th overall in the 5000m with a 14:20.69 PB.
Amongst the busiest athletes over the 3 days was Rebecca Matheson, who made it through two rounds to the final of both the 100m and 200m. She ran 12.09 in the heat and a PB of 12.01 in the semi-final on Saturday before 12.14 for 8th in the Sunday final. Soon after she opened with 24.70 in the 200m heat, matching the time in less favourable conditions in the semi-final the following morning before taking 6th in the final in 24.60. HCA Jane Davidson set a PB of 12.34 to make it through the heats of the 100m, while Eloise Lewis opened up outdoors in the event after injury. Jane looked impressive through most of her race in the first round of the 100m hurdles, but clipped hurdle nine and ran into hurdle 10 when seemingly on course to break 14 seconds, compared to her PB set the previous weekend of 14.56.
Among other competitors, HCA Jess Norkett qualified for the 800m final with a PB of 2:11.10 having been the fastest qualifier in the first round, but finished 7th in the final in 2:13.47. Louise Gilbert missed out in a tactical semi-final in 2:15.64. Joba Ashiru qualified for the high jump final with 1.90, but was unable to improve in the final. Hugh Williams had been under the weather prior to qualifying and bowed out with 12.04 in the shot and 34.78 in the discus.