17 Golds, 7 Silvers and 10 Bronze medals was the total tally that BUCS Paralympics stars in Paris walked away with, taking the total medal tally across the summer Games' to 82.
An unforgettable summer came to a close over the weekend in Paris and our BUCS stars did not disappoint, wracking up the medals from across the French capital. The first medal from Paris came on the track for Daphine Schrager (University of Bath) in the Women’s C1-3 Individual pursuit. This wasn’t the only medal on the track with MMU’s Kadeena Cox and her team bringing home gold in the mixed team sprint adding to her six previous Paralympic medals to go alongisde alongside her astonishing 37 BUCS medals. Sticking on the bike but heading out to the road saw more medals for our BUCS athletes with Sophie Unwin (Nottingham) taking first spot in the Women’s B Road Race and pedalling away with a gold medal around her neck.
More gold’s came in Archery, Fencing and Triathlon with Nathan Macqueen, Dimitri Coutya and David Ellis taking one home each. Macqueen (Edinburgh) secured his medal in dramatic fashion in the archery mixed team compound open alongside partner Jodie Grinham who came from behind to take gold. A brilliant round of Fencing from Dimitri Coutya (Cardiff) saw him board the plane home with gold medal packed securely in his suitcase. Over in the PTV1 triathlon, David Ellis (Northumbria) raced across the finish line throwing it in the air to make his way to the podium to have a gold medal draped around his neck.
Over at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium a further two gold medals were secured with Ben Pritchard (Bangor) in the PR1 Single Sculls and Giedre Rakauskaite (Worcester), Ed Fuller (Reading) and Joshua O’Brien (Birmingham) taking gold together in the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four.
The pool in Paris continued to be the place to be to collect a medal for our BUCS athletes with five golds and a world record being broken. Tulley Kearney (Manchester Met/Loughborough) powered her way to two Paralympic golds, dominating in the S5 100m and 200m freestyle. Maisie Summers-Newton (Manchester) defended her crown in the SM6 200m individual medley and secured another gold medal to add to her collection in the SM6 100m breaststroke. Aberdeen’s Faye Rogers bought home gold in the S10 100m butterfly, Grace Harvey (Manchester) won gold in the SB5 100m breaststroke and Worcester’s Rebecca Redfern took gold in the SB13 100m breaststroke.
The biggest star in the pool by far was Edinburgh’s Stephen Clegg. His second gold medal of the Games came in the S12 100m butterfly but it was his first that grabbed all the headlines, breaking a world record on his way to the top of the podium. An incredible performance from Clegg secured his gold in the S12 100m backstroke and his time of 59.02 etched his name into the history books.
A huge congratulations to all of our athletes that took part in Paris this summer, an phenomenal display of talent was on show for the world to see and our BUCS athletes did not disappoint on the biggest stage of them all. With the BUCS season just around the corner make sure you follow our social channels to see some of our Olympic and Paralympic athletes return and our member institutions create the stars of tomorrow.
