St Mary’s Athletes Win Top Medals at BUCS Cross Country Championships

Athletes from St Mary’s University, Twickenham performed brilliantly to win eight medals at the 2014 British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Cross Country Championships, which took place at the University of Stirling, Scotland on Saturday 1st February. The annual event sees a host of universities across Britain compete in three championship races and 80 athletes from St Mary’s Endurance Performance and Coaching Centre (EPACC) took part in the competition. Richard Goodman took the individual Gold medal for the Men’s 11.1km Long Race with St Mary’s winning Gold for the team effort, beating Birmingham University. St Mary’s four scorers all finished in the first seven producing the lowest ever BUCS team winning score of 17. The women’s team achieved a Silver medal in the 6.4km Long Race, with Beth Potter and Emily Hosker-Thornhill gaining spots in the top eight places. The team tied for first place on 35 points with Birmingham but were narrowly beaten on count-back, with Birmingham’s third scorer deciding the winning team. The Men’s 7.9km B Race saw eight of St Mary’s runners in the top ten, giving the University Gold and Silver medals for team efforts. All three individual medals were awarded to St Mary’s athletes: Jack Partridge won Gold, Michael Callegari, a Mo Farah Foundation scholar, won Silver and Alex Dunbar won Bronze. Other EPACC coached athletes competing for other universities also figured highly including Jonny Hay (Birmingham University) who won Silver in the Men’s Long Race, Emelia Gorecka (Royal Holloway) who won Silver in the Women’s Long Race and Jess Andrews (Brunel University) who finished fourth in the Women’s Long Race. St Mary’s Director for Sport Andrew Reid-Smith commented, “The partnership with the London Marathon has created an outstanding endurance setup at St Mary’s and it was great to see the students enjoy their BUCS experience and perform so well.”