Slam dunk for NTU Sport – double award win and top 10 ranking

NTU Sport has secured 8th place in the British Universities & Colleges Sports (BUCS) Championship 2022-23, cementing NTU as a top 10 university for sport for the second consecutive year.

NTU also won two awards at the BUCS Award ceremony - recognised for its ‘changing perceptions’ initiative in the Diversity & Inclusion Award category, reflecting its ongoing commitment to promoting diversity within its sports programmes.

NTU was also awarded the Participation Programme of the Year Award for its ‘play for fun’ programme which eliminates barriers to physical activity for students by offering 60-minute sessions across a diverse range of sports, from archery to swimming.

Other sporting highlights from the year include:

Teams – league and knockout

• The Men’s Lacrosse team won the National Championship for the first time since 2018, beating local rivals University of Nottingham. Men’s Futsal and Men’s Table Tennis also reached their Championship finals, the highest level of university competition.
• The Women’s Rugby Union, Women’s Football and Women’s Hockey teams all won their respective Trophy and Vase competitions.
• The Men’s Dodgeball team won the league in Tier One, won its Trophy competition, and got promoted to the National League. The Golf team also won its league in Tier One (having only been promoted last season), then went on to win the playoff competition and were promoted once again, now to Premier South.
• Four out of the five teams who were promoted to the Premier League last season maintained their places – Men’s and Women’s Basketball, Women’s Lacrosse, and Netball
• Overall, NTU has had 13 teams promoted this season and 17 league winners.

Individual events 

• Emily Lewis won five gold medals at BUCS Canoe Sprint, alongside Lucy Lee-Smith in the two-person events. Overall, the Canoe club came home with six golds (Benji Cabrera picking up the 6th Gold medal), 2 silvers and 3 bronze from this event. Kerry Christie also had a fantastic season in Canoe, picking up Gold in the WWR K1 Classic, amongst silver and bronze medals in other events.
• Connor Stuart picked up a Gold medal in the para-swimming Men’s 100m Backstroke at BUCS Shortcourse Swimming Championships.
• Joseph Agbodza won the Men’s 60m Hurdles at the BUCS Indoor Athletics Championships.
• Elodie Gage and Eve McInerney won Gold in the Women’s Team Sprint at the BUCS Cycling Track Championships
• Jamie Jonathan Foord won gold in the 105kg weight category at BUCS Powerlifting Championships.

Chris Campbell, Head of Performance Sport at NTU, said:

"I am tremendously proud of the work that our colleagues and students have put in place to ensure our ranking has improved for the 6th consecutive season. Following several Premier League promotions, we have done a fantastic job of making an impact in those divisions, including in Netball and Women’s Lacrosse. The return from our individual athletes is the best it has ever been, leading to us also ranking 8th in the medals table. 

The competition is becoming even greater, but to be able to look at the league table and see some of the great names of university sport we’re now sitting above is hugely satisfying. However, we can’t and won’t rest going into next season, as we look to ensure we give our student-athletes the very best chance of adding to their success.”

BUCS is the governing body for university sport across the United Kingdom. It takes many forms, from weekly fixtures to knockout tournaments and events.

Every BUCS fixture generates points for universities which culminates in an overall BUCS league table at the end of every academic year.

Congratulations to all the teams involved and bring on the next season!