Angharad Evans and Oliver Morgan completed eye-catching gold-medal hat-tricks as they starred across a breathless three days of British Universities and Colleges (BUCS) Swimming Championships action over the weekend.
Two months out from April's Aquatics GB Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre - the key selection meet for this summer's World Championship team - a host of senior GB internationals were on the start lists at Sheffield's Ponds Forge, as part of the wider multi-sport BUCS Nationals.
Among those to star were Paris Olympians Evans and Morgan, who both did a clean sweep of victories across 50m, 100m and 200m events. For University of Stirling competitor Evans, that came in the women's breaststroke contests, as she continues to show the form that brought a breakthrough season and new 100m British record in 2024.
Angharad's emphatic wins across all three events - including a margin of victory of more than two seconds in her Women's 100m Breaststroke triumph - were backed up by a vital leg as part of Stirling's win in the Women's 4x100m Medley Relay on the final day, as her fourth gold of the meet saw her team up with Katie Shanahan, Lucy Grieve and Evie Davies to deliver big points.
There was a similarly impressive set of performances from University of Birmingham man Morgan, who was dominant across the men's backstroke events. He was an agonising 0.01s off his British record of 52.70 in the 100m Backstroke - a mark he set at last year's Aquatics GB Swimming Championships - and that momentum from day one continued into Saturday and Sunday, as he surged clear in the 200m Backstroke to claim gold and then sprinted to the 50m crown as well.
Lauren Cox was a triple BUCS gold medallist as she combined wins in the Women's 50m and 100m Backstroke finals by leading off a victorious Loughborough quartet in the Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay, Greg Butler, Laura Stephens and Alex Cohoon completing the result. Max Litchfield did the Men's 200m and 400m Individual Medley double, Cohoon won gold in the 50m and 100m Freestyle showpieces, with Evie Davis taking Women's 100m Freestyle gold, while Aquatics GB Manchester Performance Centre athlete Ed Mildred (swimming for Manchester Metropolitan University) triumphed in a thrilling Men's 100m Butterfly, Bath University's Josh Gammon taking silver to back up his 50m and 200m golds.
The men's breaststroke honours were shared between Butler (100m and 200m) and Edinburgh University's Archie Goodburn, who triumphed in the sprint of the 50m contest, while Katie Shanahan took Women's 200m Individual Medley and 400m Individual Medley glory, as well as silver in the 200m Backstroke behind teammate Holly McGill. Keanna MacInnes, another of the Stirling cohort, claimed Women's 50m and 200m Butterfly gold.
Freya Colbert, meanwhile, won the 200m Freestyle and took double medley silver, while laying down an impressive anchor-leg split to bring her Loughborough team back from a major deficit to win the Women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay, and fellow Loughborough competitor Fleur Lewis claimed the 1500m Freestyle title and 400m silver, behind gold medallist Lucy Fox.
There were also Paralympic champions putting in outstanding displays at BUCS, with Faye Rogers going well inside her world-best mark for the S10 classification in the Women's 200m Butterfly, touching in 2:23.56. Poppy Maskill - ParalympicsGB's most successful athlete at the Paris 2024 Games - swam well as she looks to replicate her superb results from last April's Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in two months' time, while Worlds medallist Sam Downie had a busy programme of freestyle and backstroke events.
Away from the finals, there were promising early long-course season showings from Olympic gold medallists James Guy and Freya Anderson, with Guy ranking fastest from the Men's 200m Freestyle heats as a guest (and therefore unable to compete in finals, where Loughborough University's Tyler Melbourne-Smith was triumphant) and second fastest over the 400m Freestyle event, while Anderson was top seed after both Women's 100m and 200m Freestyle heats.
Abbie Wood, fresh from a trio of medals at December's World Short Course Championships, was fastest in both the Women's 200m and 400m Individual Medley heats, as well as going well in the 100m Butterfly. Jacob Peters, Jacob Whittle and Leah Crisp all also continued their preparations for the upcoming Aquatics GB Champs with some fast heats racing against some of the athletes who will be contesting the same events against them come 15th April.
The performances of Evans, MacInnes and others contributed to the University of Stirling securing the women's BUCS title, while Loughborough University retained the overall crown, as well as coming out on top of the open/men's side of competition.
Check out the full results from the BUCS Long Course Swimming Championships 2025.