BRACKNELL sprinter Adam Thomas marked his debut at the BUCS Nationals event by storming to 60m glory in Sheffield, with Reading’s Pippa Rogan also leaping to gold in the high jump.

More than 6,000 student athletes descended on the Steel City this weekend for three action-packed days of university and college sport.

Thomas, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering student, crossed the line in 6.75s, beating University of East London’s Adeseye Ogunlewe by 0.05s, with Goldsmith’s Reuben Arthur taking the bronze medal in a time of 6.81s.

“It feels brilliant to have won. It was a hard day, but I got it done,” said the Bracknell AC member.

“It was my first time at BUCS Nationals, too, so I seem to have settled in quite well and hopefully there are more medals to come.

“Coming into the event, I was hoping to medal, – obviously it would have been nice to win, but I was just looking for a the medal.

“I would’ve liked to have run a better time than I did, but it’s one of those things, you’ve just got to get the win, that’s racing.”

Rogan, now a student at the University of Bath, cleared 1.69 to qualify for Sunday’s final at the English Institute of Sport, before going nine centimetres better to take the gold.

She took the title by three centimetres from Thomas’ Loughborough teammate Poppy Lake, and was just relieved to get the gold after jumping 1.82m the week before and only coming third in the British Athletics Indoor Team Trials.

“I was quite tired coming into it because I was competing in Sheffield last weekend, too,” admitted the 23-year-old Thames Valley AC member.

“This was my second indoor BUCS Nationals competition and it’s good fun because all the other universities, there’s a lot of interaction here and there’s always a good crowd.”

It was not to be a golden treble for Berkshire’s athletes, though, with Reading’s Danielle Opara missing out on gold in the shot put.

The former John Madejski Academy pupil finished second behind Thomas’ Loughborough’s colleague Urina Harrell – with a throw of 14.47m.

However, she took fond memories from the event, saying: “The atmosphere is amazing. There’s always something going on, people are cheering, and you always use that to push you.

“Everyone wants to do well, so that helps me,” said the 21-year-old. “This is the end of my indoors, so now it’s working towards my outdoor season and outdoor BUCS. I’d love a medal there.”

British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the national governing body for Higher Education (HE) sport in the UK, organising leagues and competitions for more than 150 institutions across 52 different sports. BUCS Nationals is the UK’s largest annual multi-sport event, bringing more than over 6,000 athletes to Sheffield to compete in nine 9 sports.