On the weekend of the 15th and 16th of February, 117 University of Edinburgh athletes took part in the 2025 edition of BUCS Nationals held in Sheffield. Students competed across six disciplines including athletics, badminton, climbing, fencing, karate and swimming. Despite some of the best young athletes being on show, Edinburgh had an incredible performance and took home 21 medals.
In athletics, eight competitors made it to their respective finals. The end of day one saw Alyson Bell winning silver in the women’s 60m final with a personal best of 7.30 seconds. Sunday brought incredible success for the club, as two more medals were secured. Andrew McFarlane won silver in the men’s Pole Vault but it was Stephen Mackenzie who stole the headlines. The postgraduate student not only took gold in the men’s Long Jump but broke the Championship Record with a jump of 7.85m. Mackenzie was the frontrunner in the event, given his personal best stands at 7.92m. Mackenzie is a serious talent to look out for in the future of long jump as he recently finished 4th in the UK Athletics Indoor Championships.
In Badminton, some serious progress was made for the club as three doubles pairs made it into the last 16. The climbing team also shared similar success, with Emilia Callanan securing a bronze medal in the individual event. Callanan also played an integral role in the team event, with the women securing another bronze.
The fencing team took three medals throughout the weekend. Isaac McKerr won bronze in the men’s Epee, losing to the eventual winner in the semi-finals. Making her BUCS debut, Zoë Wagstaff was agonisingly close to a gold, but finished in silver by just one point in the women’s Foil. Finally, Quintin Geoffroy bettered his performance the previous year, taking gold instead of silver in the men’s Sabre final.
It was an excellent display from the Karate team who went into the event as clear favourites and didn’t disappoint. Antoine Pinardin won his fifth consecutive gold medal at BUCS Nationals with an impressive performance in the Senior Kumite +84 kg category. The second gold was no surprise as it came from the current European U21 champion, Adam Hamill, who showed no mercy in the -67kg division. Joey Cochraine picked up an individual bronze, and all three were part of the men’s Team Kumite where Edinburgh took home another bronze. The women also took home two golds with Leigh Gaussian winning the Intermediate Kata and Anna Dabrowska winning the Novice Kumite, both in the -57kg category.
It was a dominant display in the pool, with Edinburgh’s swimmers taking home eight medals across the weekend. Ciara Schlosshan was the standout performance, taking two silvers (50m and 100m) and one bronze (200m) in the butterfly. In addition, Brodie Gordon-Gibson won bronze in the 100m butterfly final. Archie Goodburn defended his 50m breaststroke title, as well as picking up a silver in the 100m final. The last two medals were won by Laura Pilkington in the women’s Para 100m breaststroke (silver) and 50m freestyle (bronze).
Speaking with The Student, Sports Union President Philine Rouwers said: “It was a fantastic weekend of sport with lots of excellent performances from our students against high-level competition”.
With such an impressive array of talent on show, the performance at BUCS Nationals 2025 is a testament to the growing strength of sports clubs at the University of Edinburgh. It will be fascinating to see what the future holds for these athletes as well as the success they can bring in years to come.
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