Team Sunderland gear up for BUCS Nationals weekend

Team Sunderland are taking 27 athletes down to Sheffield this weekend to compete in the BUCS Nationals Championships across five different sports.

The championships, which take place every year, sees the best student athletes in the country competing across three days.

The last two years Karate has proved the most successful for Team Sunderland with previous medallists Ross Billingham, Brett Billingham and Salim Salim all in action this weekend.

Badminton sees Louis Lim Jo Shiam & Chew Yi Lihang compete in the doubles while Wilson Ngie Ding Lau competes in the singles event.

Sprinter Jessica Young Rogers looks to be the leading hope for the athletics team as she competes in the 60m. With Jordan Latimer, Alan Burrows, Joel John, Tsvetozara Ilieva and Keith Mwashita also due to take to the track.

The sole competitor in the fencing is Mohammed Alharby who will go in the Mens Epee while Tom Speed (50m Breaststroke) and Rhys Llewelyn (50m backstroke and freestyle) represent Team Sunderland in the pool.

The team will be backed up by a team of student reporters from SportsByte.

Keep an eye on @sports_byte and @team_sunderland on twitter as well as @team_sunderland on instragram for updates throughout the weekend.