The university scooped four prestigious national Higher Education Sport awards last night (Tues 8 Dec) including Sportswoman and Team of the Year.

The 2020 British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) awards delivered virtually for 2020, celebrated the achievements of student athletes who excelled in their sporting endeavours, as well as volunteers and administrators who have gone above and beyond to progress the sports provision at their institution.

The University of Nottingham winners included hockey star Esme Burge who was awarded Sportswoman of the Year as she prepares for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Nottingham were awarded ‘Team of the Year’ for their success in Track Cycling earlier in the season, where the team won a staggering ten medals and achieved two team pursuit medals at the BUCS Track Championships.

Peter Boyes was awarded Student Volunteer of the year for his dedication to the rowing club. Peter has enabled the club to double in size from 50 members to 124 at the end of 2020, alongside representing at BUCS Rowing events.

Finally, Nottingham were also recognised for their innovative online campaign promoting the Empower programme taking home the Digital Engagement Award for their integrated project and partnership with leading fit-tech brand Shreddy.

The university were also shortlisted for four further awards; University of Nottingham Tennis for Sports Club of the Year, Stefano Lucchetti for Sportsman of the Year, our LGBT+ inclusions work for the Diversity in Sport award and Disability Sport Officer Hannah Webber for the Unsung Hero accolade.

University of Nottingham Students’ Union Sports Officer, Josie Jessop, told us how delighted she was with the awards. She said: “It was incredible to see our sport clubs, student volunteers, elite athletes and the rest of the University of Nottingham Sport team be recognised for all of their hard work at the awards last night.

They truly put student experience at the heart of everything they do and it’s great to see this being recognised. It makes me really proud to represent everyone at University of Nottingham Sport – staff and students alike.”

Director of Sport at the University of Nottingham, Dan Tilley, added:
“To have been shortlisted in eight categories was an amazing feat, but to then come away with four awards is a remarkable achievement for the University of Nottingham Sport family.

I am absolutely delighted for the winners Pete, Esme and the Cycling Team, along with our team who put together the Empower digital engagement offer.

It has been a really tough and testing year, so it is great to have this recognition to remind us of the staff and students who work tirelessly to deliver the best possible offer for our University community.”

As the winter holidays approach, the department continues to deliver a varied offer to the student and wider community, with a huge range of virtual content on the Health and Wellbeing Home Page complimenting the sports facilities available for students staying in Nottingham over Christmas.