ST MARY’S UNIVERSITY, TWICKENHAM
Established: 1850
Team colour(s): Blue and white
The blue and white stripes of St Mary’s are one of the sights most synonymous with BUCS competition. The likes of London 2017 World Championship semi-finalist Adelle Tracey have competed for the uni in recent years, and their current ranks include GB junior internationals like Emily Moyes. Endurance Captain Euan Campbell can give us the low-down…
Tell us about your uni and why it is great to compete for?
Our uni is relatively small with about 6,000 students enrolled. The main reason that it is so good to compete for St Mary’s is because of the facilities that we have available, including the on-campus track, gyms, the local royal parks and the coaches of course, with our endurance coaches both being former international level athletes and now being coaches for British Athletics.
Chasing Group at half way #BUCSXC @BUCSsport pic.twitter.com/v9iRJPRiaK
— Vinco (@VincoSport) February 3, 2018
St Mary’s providing some of the loudest support at the BUCS Cross Country Championships
What’s your favourite thing about competing in BUCS events?
One of the best things about competing at BUCS events is the atmosphere. It’s not like other athletics events, where there can be next to no atmosphere. You just have to look at BUCS cross to see why so many people choose to turn up despite the mud and the rain, its the sort of experience you don’t get at many other events in the UK. My favourite thing about competing at BUCS for St Mary’s is that we win! This is a big driving factor among the team as we all want to win and keep up the tradition of being a dominant force on the track and cross country, in particular in longer events.
Can you give us your best memory of competing for St Mary’s?
Its hard to pick out one memory that is the best, but there are lots of fond memories from BUCS cross, where the team comes together and gets behind each other, and everyone just wants each other to do well.
Who is the funniest or loudest member of your team and why?
We have quite a few characters amongst our team each with their own special qualities. George Elliot is certainly one of the louder ones in the team, with always having something to say. Ryan Green, will always be up to something as well, and will remind anyone, given the chance, of that time he won Varsity.
Great performance from the boys in the A race! Just waiting for the results #BUCSXC pic.twitter.com/cHolDNgiyr
— Sport St Mary’s (@SportStMarys) February 3, 2018
Which athletes in your team should we be keeping an eye out for?
Without sounding over-confident or putting too much pressure on anyone, I think you should be keeping an eye on all of us. Our men’s distance team is very strong this year, in particular those running well are Paulos Surafel in the 3000, Jeremy Barnes in the 1500 after a troubled season last year, and Max Wharton in the 800. On the women’s side the 3000 is very strong with both ladies (Emily Moyes and Emily Hosker-Thornhill) having competed for Great Britain in the past.
Which of the other universities would you say are your biggest rivals and what would you say to the competition ahead of the BUCS Nationals?
Geographically, Brunel are our closest competition, however we back ourselves to beat the competition rather than worry about it.
