Brooker bags BUCS treble
Sporting scholar Cameron Brooker secured a hat-trick of titles as University of Bath students won 18 medals at the 2023 BUCS Short Course Swimming Championships in Sheffield.
Mechanical engineering student Brooker, who represented Great Britain at the European Short Course Championships, struck gold in the 100m backstroke (50.95), 200m backstroke (1:52.80) and 200m freestyle (1:44.85).
Joshua Gammon won 200m butterfly gold (1:54.70) and Leah Crisp, Jemima Hall and Niamh Ward also enjoyed multiple podium placings during a successful weekend towards the end of November.
Brooker, an Ivor Powell Scholar who trains at the University with the British Swimming Performance Centre squad, finished the gala with seven medals in total including bronze in the 100m freestyle (48.21).
He also won men’s 200m freestyle relay silver with Kaleb Foxjones, Rob Darbyshire and Gammon (1:28.21); men’s 200m medley relay silver with Luis Weekes, Gammon and Darbyshire (1:36.14); and mixed 200m medley relay bronze with Hall, Gammon and Emily Morgan-hughes (1:42.78).
Sports performance student Gammon, coached by Andrei Vorontsov in the University’s student-swimming squad, added to his 200m butterfly gold with silver in both the 100m (51.62) and 50m (23.25) finals – finishing just onehundredth of a second shy of top spot in the latter.
Santander Scholar Crisp, who studies economics and mathematics, added to her vast collection of BUCS medals with silver in the 400m freestyle (4:08.32) and bronze over 800m (8:30.19).
Business student Hall, supported by the Talented Athlete Scholarship
Scheme (TASS), won 200m freestyle silver (1:57.10) and 100m freestyle bronze (54.57) plus women’s 200m freestyle relay bronze with Ward, Maisie Gilford and Anna Farrow (1:41.84).
That was one of four bronze medals won by civil engineering fresher Ward in her first BUCS championship, the others coming in the 50m backstroke (28.14), 100m backstroke (59.56) and 200m backstroke (2:08.26).
Ward, Morgan-hughes, Gilford and Hall placed fourth in the last race of the weekend, the women’s 200m medley relay (1:52.65), and computer science first-year Jack Skerry finished just outside the medals in a blanket finish to the men’s 50m backstroke (24.86).
Skerry was among the Bath swimmers to win B finals, placing first in the 200m backstroke (1:59.14). Other B final victories were recorded by Morgan-hughes in the 200m individual medley (1:04.20) and 100m breaststroke (1:09.06), Darbyshire in the 50m freestyle (22.39) and Isaac Dodds in the 200m IM (2:02.97).
Ridhwan Mohamed, who studies automotive engineering with business management, set three new Kenyan national records in the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle.
Sports performance student Sam Williamson, fresh from representing Bermuda at the Pan-american Games in Chile, also set national records in the 100m and 200m individual medley.
In total there were 55 Universitybased swimmers competing in Sheffield, ranging from the student recreational squad to performance athletes, and they set 63 personal bests between them.
That helped Bath place fourth in the overall team competition, with the women ranking third and the men fifth.