On the weekend of 10th - 12th November, DUSC took 33 swimmers to Ponds Forge International Pool in the swimming hub of Sheffield for the BUCS 2017 short course championships. Along with many teams from across the country, there were a number of world stage athletes competing including Duncan Scott and Tim Shuttleworth.
It was a very successful weekend for the team, with PB's coming from everywhere, along with a 3rd place finish from Danielle Gilbert in the 50m breaststroke final. Dani also managed to break her own DUSC record at the same time!
The weekend got off to a flyer with both the men's and women's freestyle relay teams putting in solid performances. The team then gathered in the hotel after fuelling up for some team bonding fun and games.
Saturday saw some very fast swimming with many PB's, leading to lots of fines. Again, both relay teams performed very well, this time in the IM relay. The men's team did particularly well in one of the fastest heats. This day however, proved too much for some freshers who fell asleep on poolside! The efforts of the day were rewarded with a team meal to Pizza Express to carb-up in readiness for another day's competing.
On Sunday, DUSC were relentless with yet more PB's and fast swimming despite the long weekend of racing. After competition concluded for our swimmers, the team had their traditional photo shoots, firstly on poolside, followed by an underwater shoot in the diving pool.
The team slowly filtered onto the bus on Sunday afternoon and headed home to Durham, where the post-BUCS social took place. The weekends fines were handed out, with Ryan Baker firmly in first place in that department. The team enjoyed a well deserved evening full of fun, entertainment and dancing. Huge congratulations to the whole team, for their fast swimming and for showing you don't always need a huge team to be loud!
