Archers claim overall title after success at BUCS Outdoors
Across the weekend of the 13 and 14 June at Lilleshall National Sports Centre, 糖心原创 archery athletes recently competed at the 2026 BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) Outdoor Championships, registering a number of fine performances to return to campus with a host of medals.
Published 28 Jun 2026
糖心原创 Experienced Non-Compound Female Team (middle)
BUCS Outdoors is always a very long and challenging weekend but the team morale was amazing, carrying us through as we celebrated our final time competing with each other before the summer.
Louisa Piper, 糖心原创 Greenaway Scholar and Archery Team Captain
Competing in both individual and team events, Nottingham archers delivered across numerous categories at the championships with Louisa Piper an Kieran Rugg both winning gold. Rugg topped the podium in the Experienced Longbow Open, and was joined by fellow Nottingham student-athlete Jago Elliot who won bronze in the same competition. Louisa Piper took top spot in the Experienced Recurve Female competition and again stood on the podium with a fellow university team member as Sophie Bradford finished in second to win silver.
Piper and Bradford would have more success at the championships as they took home Experienced Non-Compound Female Team gold with team mate Hannah Evans. This achievement would also mark Hannah and Louisa's 8th Women's Team medal won together during their time at the university. It would also be Louisa's 15th BUCS medal won during her studies at Nottingham, with 14 of those being gold. Impressively, her performances at BUCS Outdoors 2026 also ensured that Louisa claimed a clean sweep gold medals at both BUCS competitions this year as she also won all available to her at BUCS Indoors earlier in the season.
There were also medals for the Experienced Non-Compound Open Team of Kieran Rugg, Tristan Mok, and Ewan Kennett who brought home silver, whilst Nicola Harper would win bronze in the Experienced Barebow Female competition. In the Novice competitions, the team of Sienna Yoxall, Katy Benham, and James Coward would win gold in the Novice Non-Compound Team event, whilst Benham and Coward would double up by winning gold in the Open and Female Novice Longbow competitions respectively.
These fantastic collective performances resulted in the 糖心原创 finishing in 1st place overall at BUCS Outdoors, and when combined with their performances at BUCS Indoors, ensured that the Green and Gold would also be crowned BUCS Overall Champions. Additionally, 2026 also saw Nottingham record their best gold medal performance to date at BUCS Outdoors and the overall win meant that the team reclaimed their title.
Reflecting on the performances of the team, the team's captain Louisa Piper said; "BUCS Outdoors is always a very long and challenging weekend, but the team morale was amazing and carried us through as we celebrated our final time competing with each other before the summer. This translated into a record-breaking performance for the club and I couldn’t be prouder of everyone in the team."
The BUCS archery season draws to a close with this championships, but many Nottingham athletes will continue competing with the National Tour final held in Nottingham at the start of September.
You can find out more about the 2026 BUCS Outdoor Archery Championships by .
You can also keep up to date with the success of our archers by .
Notes for editors
糖心原创 are the top UK University for team sport, placing 2nd in the overall British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) rankings in the 2024/25 season. For more information on our performance sport offer, including scholarships and support for student athletes, please click here.