UK Student Archery Association

BUCS Outdoor 2025 Review [19/Jun/25]

BUCS Outdoors 2025 took place at Lilleshall NSC over the weekend of the 14th and 15th June. Results from the WA720/H2H and WA900 were combined so both events contributed equally to determine the overall winners.

Saturday WA720 and H2H

This year the order of the events was the WA720 and H2H on the Saturday. Novices shot in a separate KO bracket. This is the 12th running of the competition, which first ran in 2013. As from 2021, barebows shot at 50m.

In ladies recurve, Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford) beat Jennifer Collins (Wolverhampton) as the top two seeds contested the final. Pogorenii won the final in straight sets - Collins had outqualified the rest of the field by 30 points. Pogorenii also had 6-0 wins in her quarter-final against 8th seeded Eliza Tully (Reading) and in her semi-final again 12th seed Magdalena Kazmierczak (Bristol). The 19th seed Emily Summers (Oxford) KO-ed two of her higher ranked team mates Yanyijie Zhou (q 14th) and Emma Howes (q 3rd), before coming through a shoot off against Alice Haskell (Leicester, q11th) in the quarters. Summers' run was only brought to a halt by Jennifer Collins 6-2 in the semi finals. In the other QFs Magdalena Kazmierczak had overcome Lamya Majeed (Birmingham q20th) 6-4, having come back from 4-2 down, whilst Jennifer Collins beat the experienced Hannah Evans (Nottingham q7th), also 6-4. In the bronze medal match, Kazmierczak beat Summers 6-4, once again coming back from 4-2 down.

In gents recurve, top seed Cheung Sum Hin (Sheffield) beat Callum Piggott (Coventry) 6-4 in a competitive match. Cheung (who won this same title 12 months ago) and Piggott (who won the equivalent indoor title in March this year) won alternating sets to keep the match close - Cheung taking the decider 28-26. In the bronze medal match 10th seed Alex Williams (Bristol) picked up third spot taking a 6-2 win over Will Oakes (Keele q4th). The semi-finals had produced straightforward wins for Cheung over Oakes and Piggott over Williams. The quarter-finals were much more incident packed. Alex Williams knocked out the 2nd seed Wills Chiu (Warwick), overturning a 4-2 deficit for a 6-4 win, with the pair never more than 2 points apart in any end. Callum Piggott beat Freddie Crosby (Southampton) 7-1, although despite the more one-sided set scoreline, Crosby only accrued 4 fewer points over 4 ends. In the other half of the draw Will Oakes beat Shane Pothunnah (Warwick q5th) 6-4, despite having been 4-0 down after two ends. Despite that performance, perhaps the match of the round saw team mates Cheung Sum Hin and Jack Wells (Sheffield q8th) battle all the way to a shoot-off - the highlight being a 29-29 draw in the fourth set - before Cheung won the 5th and the shoot-off.

In the compound finals, Finlay Clark (Hull) beat Sam Cartwright (Nottingham) 143-140, with Hallie Boulton (UCLan) beating Faye Balcombe (Leicester) 145-128. Ngai Yu Chak (Coventry) and Alex Chun (St Andrews) took the bronzes. Clark took the gents titles with a 27 and four 29s. Both ladies finalists went one place better than they did 12 months ago, with Boulton top seed and well clear of the entire field.

Gents barebow final was an all Manchester affair as second seed Myfanwy Fflur beat top seed Wenze Jiang. 3-3 after 3 ends, Jiang took the fourth, but Fflur won the fifth and the shoot off to take gold. In the semis Jiang had beaten Luka Gillingham (Surrey) 6-2. Myfanwy Fflur had been 0-4 down against William Anderson (Dundee), but stormed back to win 6-4. Gillingham would beat Anderson 6-4 in the bronze match - Anderson having been 4-0 up again.

Ladies barebow final saw Sharon Pisani (St Andrews q2nd) beat Eva Jessen (Nottingham q4th) 7-3. Jessen took the first set and halved the second, but from there, Pisani upped her scores to win the last three. The route to gold for Pisani was dramatic to say the least - she needed a shoot off in the round of 16 and again in a semi-final against Florence Prior (York q3rd). Eva Jessen had ousted top seed Marilyn Wong (Plymouth) 6-4 in the other semi. Prior defeated Wong 6-2 for bronze.

In the longbow divisions, Joshua Borders (Manchester) beat Jago Elliott (Nottingham) in the gents final, with Helen Woodcock (MMU) beating Alexandra Langdon-Reich (Sheffield). Helen Woodcock picked up her third ladies longbow H2H crown, making her the 7th individual to complete a hat-trick of wins, since the H2Hs started in 2013. Fellow triple winner Katie Axup (Loughborough) won longbow bronze this year, as did Rex Zhang (Bristol).

There were also separate novice H2H events. Qingyang Li (Manchester) won the gents novice recurve event with a dominant display. Over four matches, top seed Li dropped only one set, in the final which he won 6-2 against Edward Lowe (St Andrews q2nd). Lowe had beaten Nathan Haine (Sheffield q3rd) 6-2 in the semis, with Li whitewashing Jeffrey Yao Chun Fai (Oxford q4th). Haine led Fai 4-0 and 5-1 but Fai forced a shoot off. Both men hit 9s, with Fai's nearer to the centre to take third place.

The novice ladies recurve final saw Wiebke von Abel (Birmingham) beat Imogen Bartin (Warwick). Like the men's novice final it was 1st seed beating 2nd. von Abel ran away with a 6-0 win. Earlier Bartin had inflicted a whitewash of her own in her semi against Jess Wrona (Nottingham q3rd). Wiebke von Abel had beaten Abir Ansari (Liverpool) 7-3 in their semi. Wrona beat Ansari in the bronze medal match.

Novice gent compound winner was Lucas Yau (Loughborough). Meron Tesfu (MMU) and Leah McGloin (UWS) beat Jake Woolley (Warwick) and Roxana Attack (Liverpool) in the novice barebow finals. Jack Hutton (Lancaster) and Nicola Harper (Nottingham) won bronze. Toby Perks (Warwick) won novice gents longbow.

Sunday WA900

Ladies recurve on the Lilleshall Sunday was effectively a repeat of the Saturday as Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford) and Jennifer Collins (Wolvermapton) flew well clear of the field. Pogorenii led Collins by 3 after 60m. Collins already led the rest of the field by 15 points. A ten point swing over 50m saw Collins take the lead, but over 40m Pogorenii swept back into the lead, finishing on 807 to Collins' 801. Leading the rest of the field, Julianna Ostrovska (Royal Holloway) and Emma Howes (Oxford) scored 765 and 760. Ostrovska and Howes had virtually identical distance totals. Emily Nichols (Birmingham) pipped Hannah Evans (Nottingham) 755 to 754, with Xin Liu (Leicester) seventh on 744. Magdalena Kazmierczak (Bristol), Eliza Tully (Reading) and Alice Haskell (Leicester) completed the top 10.

Men's recurve turned in to a three way fight as Cheung Sum Hin (Sheffield), Wills Chiu (Warwick) and Callum Piggott (Coventry) were close for whole day. After 60m, Chiu led Cheung by 2, who led Piggott by another 2. Cheung had the best 50m and moved 5 points ahead, with Piggott overtaking Chiu. Cheung and Chiu shot the joint best totals at 40m, which left Cheung to take first on 852, Chiu on 845 and Piggott on 842. Not far behing the leading trio was Mykhailo Pavlov (Dundee), fourth on 821 - Pavlov was in touch with the leaders for 60m and 50m bit faded slightly over 40m to score 821. Rafail Panagiotidis (Manchester) was fifth on 816, nudging ahead of Will Oakes (Keele) over 40m. Oakes final score was 813, with Alex Williams (Bristol) the last man over 800 on 804. The rest of the top 10 was Shane Pothunnah (Warwick), Luke Burch (Exeter) and Conor Nolan (Loughborough).

In the compound divisions, Finlay Clark (Hull) and Hallie Boulton (UCLan) both led from start to finish. Clark's 893 and Boulton's 874 both narrowly missed out on All Unis records. On the men's side, Yu Chak Ngai (Coventry) was a close second in all 3 distances, 5 behind on on 885. Faye Balcombe (Leicester) actually did pinch top score at 40m round, but Boulton was too far ahead, with Balcombe was 25 behind on 849.

Luka Gillingham (Surrey) raced clear of the gents barebow field by over 30 points after two distances. The rest of the field did bring him back a little over 40m, but he scored 720 to win, from the 697 of Alex Kendrew (Birmingham). Daniel Kilgallon (UCLan) - who won this event last year - was third on 681, just a single point ahead of Wenze Jiang (Manchester).

Ladies barebow produced a real thriller. Eva Jessen (Nottingham) led after 60m, but was overtaken by Sharon Pisani (St Andrews) over 50m. Pisani had been 26 adrift, but now led by 15. Far from being the end of drama, over 40m, as Marilyn Wong (Plymouth) shredded the lead to only 1. However at the final whistle, Pisani was top on 573, Wong on 572, with Jessen not far behind on 564. Freya Rennie (UWS) was fourth.

Jago Elliott (Nottingham) won gents longbow with 370. Elliott was nearly 60 clear after two distances and although 40m seemed to shake up the field quite a bit, he still won with 370, with Joshua Read (Loughborough) coming from nearly 30 behind to be second on 314. A strong 50 and 40m propelled Helen Woodcock (MMU) to top spot in the ladies longbow division, with 378. Katie Axup (Loughborough) was second on 331. Woodcock and Axup swapping places from the same event last year.

In the novice standings, Qingyang Li (Manchester) tore apart the gents field, winning each distance by 20 points or more and ending on 769 and beating the previous All Unis record (set last year) by 17 points. Li's closest rivals were over 70 adrift, with Edward Lowe (St Andrews) on 697 and Nathan Haine (Sheffield) third on 682. Wiebke von Abel (Birmingham) was top novice lady with 725 and she tied the existing All Unis record. The gap to second place here however was a mere 6 as Jess Wrona (Nottingham) pursued von Abel right to the line. Wrona had been only 1 behind after 50m. Abir Ansari (Liverpool) was third novice lady on 681. Lucas Yau (Loughborough) was top novice compound on 817. Josuf Hyseni (Birmingham) was top novice gent barebow, with Toluwani Popoola (Loughbrough) winnning the equivalent ladies category. Hyseni's score of 674 saw him smash the previous All Unis record of 627. Finlay Jolley (Surrey) and Leah McGloin (UWS) were novice barebow runners up. Toby Perks (Warwick) was top novice longbow on 338.

Results

Team scores were calculated across all non-compound archers and across the WA720, H2H and WA900.

Warwick won the men's team event and Oxford won the women's team event. This is the same combination of teams who won the BUCS Indoor team titles this year. Warwick have now won the men's team BUCS Outdoor title three times in the last four years. Oxford repeat their women's team BUCS double from 2015. On the gents team side, Manchester were second - the latest in a long line of Manchester results this season that have smashed their previous bests. This result ties Manchester's best ever finish at a UK-wide student event - set over 40 years ago at the Indoor Championships of 1981 and 1983. Loughborough were second ladies team - the fourth time in a row they have won women's team medals at BUCS Outdoors. The respective defending champions from 12 months ago Sheffield (men's) and Nottingham (women's) both won team bronze this time around. Nottingham were also fourth place on the gents side, whilst Reading wrapped up fourth spot on the women's side. Like Manchester, Reading tied their best ever result at a national event - 4th spot at BUTC 2010. 5th to 8th ladies teams were Leicester, Southampton, Bristol and York. 5th to 8th on the gents side were Southampton, Lancaster, Birmingham and Bristol. Leicester's fifth place ladies team is their best result at this event ever. Lancaster's sixth placed gents team is their best at Lilleshall since 2016. There were 14 men's teams and 11 women's - both slightly up on last year.

In the novice team category, Warwick were first, defending their title from last year. Birmingham were second, with Liverpool grabbing third ahead of Loughborough and Nottingham. There were 14 complete novice teams of 3 - exactly double the number from last year.

Top compound team was Edinburgh, again defending their title, with Loughborough in second. There were 7 compound teams of 2 in total.

Cheung Sum Hin (Sheffield) won the BUCS Outdoors gents recurve title with a clean sweep of WA70, H2H and WA900 to end on a perfect score of 3 - the is the second year in a row he has accomplished this feat. Callum Piggott (Coventry) was runner up overall on 8, with Wills Chiu (Warwick) third on 10. Chiu finished second in both ranking rounds with Piggott third, but Piggott's runners up spot in the H2H saw him claim individual outdoor silver to go with his indoor gold. Chiu won bronze indoors and out. Will Oakes (Keele) scored 14 over the weekend and took the last individual gent recurve BUCS point. Mykhailo Pavlov (Dundee), Alex Williams (Bristol) and Shane Pothunnah (Warwick) led the chasing pack, with Conor Nolan (Loughborough) and Jack Wells (Sheffield).

Also winning with a clean sweep was new BUCS Outdoors ladies champion Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford). Pogorenii has won 5 BUCS team medals of various colours, but this gold was her first individual one. Behind Pogorenii's perfect score of 3, Jennifer Collins (Wolverhampton) won a clean sweep of silvers and ended on 6 points. Collins takes home Wolverhampton's first ever BUCS medal of any kind. Behind the top two Emma Howes (Oxford) took third place and bronze with 16 points, with Hannah Evans (Nottingham) in fourth, securing the last BUCS point with 19. Fifth down to ninth was all very close with Magdalena Kazmierczak (Bristol) followed by Sienna Foster (Bangor) then Eliza Tully (Reading), Alice Haskell (Leicester) and Julianna Ostrovska (RHU).

Top compounds were Hallie Boulton (UCLan) and Finlay Clark (Hull) on 3 and 4 respectively. Yu Chak Ngai (Coventry) and XiangKun Kong (Edinburgh) were second and third gent, both on 8 with the H2H bronze match between the pair (and won by Ngai) effectively the decider. Faye Balcombe (Leicester) was clear in second in the ladies on 6, ahead of Alex Chun (St Andrews). Gents barebow was very close with Wenze Jiang (Manchester) winning with 7. Myfanwy Fflur (Manchester) and Luka Gillingham (Surrey) both finished on 8. Sharon Pisani (St Andrews) won ladies barebow, with Marilyn Wong (Plymouth) in second - upgrading her bronze from last year - and Eva Jessen (Nottingham) third. Jago Elliott (Nottingham) and Helen Woodcock (MMU) won the longbow titles.

In novice recurve, both gents and ladies winners won clean sweeps. Qingyang Li (Manchester) and Wiebke von Abel (Birmingham) took the honours. Edward Lowe (St Andrews) and Jess Wrona (Nottingham) were second with Nathan Haine (Sheffield) and Imogen Bartin (Warwick) in third. The winning novice compounds were Lucas Yau (Loughborough) and Bridey Simpson (St Andrews). Top novice gent barebows were Meron Tesfu (MMU) and Josuf Hyseni (Birmingham) both on 8 points with Jake Woolley (Warwick) on 9. Tesfu winning the H2H was just enough to take him to overall gold, after Hyseni had won both the 50m ranking round and WA900. Leah McGloin (UWS) won novice ladies barebow, with Roxana Atack (Liverpool) in second. Toby Perks (Warwick) and Cizzie McGuinness (Dundee) won novice longbow categories.

See results in BUCS Outdoors section.