BUCS agree three-year deal with Sheffield to host Nationals

23rd February 2016

British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) has agreed a deal with Sheffield to host the BUCS Nationals in the city for a further three years.

The agreement which includes the 2016 BUCS Nationals, starting on 19 February, is signed in conjunction with a city partnership consisting of Sheffield City Council, SIV, Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam University. BUCS Nationals is the UK's largest annual multi-sport event, with over 6,000 entries from over 100 universities represented in ten sports, across seven venues. Vince Mayne, CEO of BUCS said: -We are delighted to be bringing BUCS Nationals back to Sheffield for a further three years, cementing our close bond with the city. We have always been impressed with the fantastic sporting facilities in the city and they know how to host a great event. This deal will allow us to grow the largest annual multi-sport event in the UK even further, utilising all that Sheffield as a city has to offer and with a record number of entries this year, we can't wait for the championships to begin. This years' BUCS Nationals comes at a crucial time for aspirational sportsmen and women, with Rio 2016 on the horizon. The pathway that university sport provides to Olympic teams is well documented and current Olympic Champion and Sheffield golden girl, Jessica Ennis-Hill is delighted by the news: -It's great for the city to have secured yet another superb sporting event further cementing Sheffield as the sporting capital of England. It's key to be supporting the next generation of athletes, which is particularly apt being in an Olympic year and from my own experience, I can say that competing at university level really helped me get to where I am at today. I will be keeping an eye out for the stars of tomorrow and the future competition! Steve Brailey MBE, chief executive of SIV, said: -SIV has been extremely proud to be a significant partner of BUCS over the past decade. Working together as one team, the two organisations have worked hard developing a number of the BUCS major events in our properties every year. -The quality and quantity of our portfolio and services that we have been able to provide has helped support BUCS in developing the Nationals into the crown jewel of their events programme. It is clearly fantastic news that they will be keeping this event in Sheffield until at least 2019. BUCS Nationals takes place in Sheffield from 19-21 February. For more information, visit www.bucs.org.uk.