Performance: Swimming Team continues to make waves
24 February 2012
A 23-strong squad of the Cardiff University Swimming Team descended on the freezing Steel City of Sheffield for the BUCS Long Course Swimming Championships 2012 in high spirits. The team arrived with great expectations after promotion from Division 3 last season, a record points score at the BUCS Short Course Championships 2011 and aiming for back-to-back promotion to Division 1 after an impressive Division 2 campaign this season.
Star Swimmer, Libby Hetherington (2nd Year Geology), stole the show winning Cardiff University’s 1st individual medal at a BUCS individual competition for as long as the recent BUCS records go back! She touched home in the 50m Freestyle in a time of 26.93 to claim the bronze medal in front of some notable swimmers from top swimming universities such as Loughborough.
Other top performances came from the Men’s Captain, Chris Campbell (1st Year Medicine), who was just edged out of a medal of his own in the 50m Butterfly finishing in 4th place just 0.4secs outside the medal places. Alex Mackay (2nd Year Maths), who will be attending the London 2012 Olympic Trials held next month at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, also put in some performances of true grit in the longer distance events. He came 5th in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley and 7th in the 200m Individual Medley.
Most importantly, as a team, Cardiff finished a record 14th place out of over 50 universities in the overall points scores at the end of the championships; accumulating points from more finals appearances than ever before and top relay performances. This is the university’s best ever result and the team has consolidated themselves in the top 20 and up next will be the top 10.
Next for the team comes the BUCS Team Championships Division 2 Trophy Final held in Sheffield on March 10th and the Team is in a great position for further success and promotion. All in all, Cardiff University Swimming is well and truly on the up.