The BUSA Indoor Athletics Championships, held as part of the inaugural British University Championships in Sheffield, was packed with excitement as Bath took advantage of Loughborough’s boycott to win both the men’s and women’s competitions. The event was shadowed by the absence of Loughborough, the traditional giants of university athletics, as well as UWIC, whose boycotted the event in protest at their timing. The Indoor Athletics Championships, traditionally held in February, were moved to a later date in order to coincide with the British University Championships, but many believed that this was too close to the outdoor athletics season.

The Saturday and Sunday of the BUSA Championships saw the finest boxers England’s universities have to offer meet at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport. As with the universities boxing championships which took place in December there were men’s and women’s champions to be decided in novice and open class. The novice class was open to boxers who had fought in less than ten fights and the open class for those who had experienced more than ten bouts.

Bath 2nd's won the BUSA trophy after an emphatic 5-0 victory over fellow finalists Plymouth at Don Valley Stadium. Goals from Paul Simmons (45,55), Ian Parks (70) and substitute Sion Kitson (80,85) ensured Bath the victory in a match that they dominated from start to finish.

In the second of our ‘Road to Beijing’ interviews Ralph Shepherd speaks to a former high jump hopeful who could now be representing Great Britain in the 400 metres this summer. Richard Buck is not your average student. He attends lectures only after hours of training, his drink of choice is a sports drink or water and his summer holiday this year is not a lad’s trip abroad. Richard is hoping to achieve a dream by visiting China in August to compete in the 400m at the Beijing Olympics.

Between March 13-16 the BUSA Championships took place in Sheffield - the first time that 20 different university sport finals had taken place in one city. Seb Coe commented that ‘our universities have a rich tradition for producing some of the country’s finest athletes’ and this proved to be the case in Sheffield as some of the best young talent shone on the multi-sport stage. With the Athletics, Football trophy and Boxing BUSA Championship reports featured in separate reports, here is a summary of the results in the other sports.

In what has to go down as one of the most dramatic matches in BUSA’s football history, the University of Birmingham edged past Edinburgh University after eight goals, two dismissals, 120 minutes and nine penalties.

The BUSA Cross Country Championships held in Swansea on Saturday February 2 saw a changing of the tides in the world of university cross country running as a number of teams shared the silverware.

With the Olympic games just five months away The National Student will be conducting a series of interviews in the build-up to Beijing with student athletes in the reckoning for a place in the Great Britain team. Mariam Farookhi gets the ball rolling with sprint star Craig Pickering. Young sprinters such as Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Simeon Williamson and Craig Pickering have exploded onto the athletics scene in the last few years, and their progress towards one of the most renowned sporting events, to be hosted by London in 2012 for the first time in 64 years, has already commenced.

Ben Townsend examines the mutually beneficial link between universities and professional rugby teams. Following England’s World Cup victory in 2003, ways of assuring the continued success of the English national team has been a top priority. The rather shaky and arguably fortuitous 2007 World Cup campaign, ending in a final appearance against eventual winners South Africa, was highlighted as a cause for concern, especially considering the squads’ average age stood at 33.

Imperial College London Varsity 2008 Imperial Medicals 22 Imperial College 19 (after extra time) This annual event has grown since it’s birth in 2003 with up to 46 teams from Imperial College (Imperial) and Imperial Medicals (Medicals) competing against each other, with the JPR Williams Cup as the main event. This years JPR Williams Cup was billed as ‘The Big One’ with the Imperial 1st XV rugby team gaining promotion into the BUSA Southern Premiership B and the Medicals pulling off a Great Escape to stay in the same league. Imperial have been on superb form, comfortably beating their last two opponents, scoring over 49 points in each game, whilst the Medicals have had to fight hard to earn their wins.

Reigning Superleague champions TeamBath faced a major clash against, current Co-operative Super League leaders, Loughborough Lightning at the Sports Training Village in Bath on February 8. The Bath Netballers were to experience a shattering two goal defeat by Loughborough Lightning with a final score of 47 - 49.

The BUSA Golf Men’s Northern Regional Strokeplay Qualifier took place on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 February at Wallasey Golf Club in Liverpool, the location of the 2006 Open Golf Championship Qualifying, with Birmingham University taking both the Men’s and Women’s Individual Events.

London Metropolitan University showed they are the new dominating force in university table tennis with a fantastic performance at the Individual Championships in Nottingham. The team took four out of the five titles on offer and in doing so put on a display of high quality and exciting table tennis.

One year ago the University of Birmingham Men’s 1st XI footballers were celebrating promotion to the BUSA Northern Premier League. Twelve months later they were crowned champions. This is a particularly impressive achievement considering the strength of the league with the likes of Loughborough, Leeds Metropolitan and Northumbria challenging for supremacy.

In a fixture charged with concerns of playoff opposition and university pride, Durham and Birmingham fought wholeheartedly for league supremacy; Loughborough take note. In what can only be described as a thrilling comeback, Durham climbed the mountain they made for themselves in the first half to become the BUSA North Premier Champions for the first time since it was won under captain Gavin Featherstone (the current Director of Hockey at the university) in 1977.

The University of Stirling’s men’s golf team, the current British Universities’ champions, returned recently from a 10-day golf tour in South Africa that culminated in victory over Tshwane University, the reigning South African student champions. The 14-a-side match played over 2 days on Pretoria courses Woodhill and Wingate Park ended 15-13 in Stirling’s favour

Three days of fierce competition at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield saw the best boxers England’s universities have to offer slug it out.

University of Bath student Craig Pickering became the fastest man in the world over 60m this year at the Norwich Union International in Glasgow on January 26.

91-year-old Ivor Powell was awarded an MBE for services to sport in the 2008 New Year Honours list. The former Welsh international footballer, who played for Aston Villa, Queen’s Park Rangers and Blackpool, has worked as a football coach at the University of Bath for more than 30 years.

Sports Personality of the Year, Joe Calzaghe is one of the worlds best and most respected boxers. James Davies caught up with him ahead of his eagerly anticipated fight with U.S. legend Bernard Hopkins

After five days of competition between December 14-18, the Barclays BUSA Individual Tennis Championships 2007 saw London Metropolitan University taking all four titles on a day of four high quality finals. Both Anna Koumantou and Matjaz Jurman took home the individual and doubles titles for the women and men respectively.

A two day training camp held at Warwick University on January 6-7 was the final part of a four-month programme which saw 36 of the most talented university footballers compete for 28 places in this years English Universities squad.

The universities of Bath and Loughborough missed out on the opportunity to be the official training camp for the British Olympic team ahead of London 2012.

TeamBath swimmer Janne Schaefer completed a terrific hat-trick by winning the 50m breaststroke gold for the third year in a row at the European Short Course Championships.

Sam Dobin has entered the history books, becoming only the second person ever to complete the legendary Great Court Run at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Two goals from Swedish forward Peder Beck-Friis and a late strike from Chris Woods saw Edinburgh University edge out Deveronvale in a tense Scottish Cup tie, watched by 300 spectators at Peffermill, including many of the universities top brass.