BUCS Indoor Championships

E.I.S. Stadium Sheffield

Friday 16^th to Sunday 18^th February 2018

The 2018 British Universities and College Sports Indoor Championships were held at the English Institute of Sports Stadium in Sheffield from Friday the 16^th to Sunday the 18^th of February. Two Kingston athletes were in competition at the event both of them are in their first year at university and also have just made the move up from the under 20’s to the under 23’s.

Birmingham University student and former England under 20 international Charlotte Paterson spent a lot of time on the sidelines with injury problems during 2017 but still managed to win the Northern indoor 60 metre title in January and backed up with the Northern track & field 100 metre title in June. At July’s Under 20 International in Cardiff she was the 100 metre gold medallist. Still hampered by injury she made the semi finals of the 60 metres at this January’s Northern Indoor Championships. She was in action on the opening day of competition at the BUCS in Friday’s 60 metre sprints, drawn to run in heat 3 she pulled out a season’s best performance winning the race and posting a time 7.73 sec which saw her qualify for the semi-finals. She went in the second of the three semi-final races where she took a 3^rd place finish running a time of 7.77 sec, missing the cut for the final by two hundredths of a second.

Warwickshire University student and former North Yorkshire 100 and 200 metre champion Matthew Backhouse is another athlete who suffered horrendous ill luck on the injury front over the last two years. He only managed to get one competitive race in during 2017 and that was at Kingston’s Spring Open in April, the annual season opener. Matt was a valued member of the Kingston youth team and senior team and he was missed last year. He made his return to competitive action this January at the London senior and under20 games at the Lee Valley stadium where he competed in the 60 metre and 200 metre events. At the BUCS championships he competed in the 60 metres event where he was drawn to run in the 5^th of the 14 heats, his run of 7.55 sec saw him take 7^th place in the race but his time was not enough to get him into the semi-finals.