Brunel's athletes helped open the London 2012 Olympic Stadium in style from 4-7 May, finishing second in the medal table and a creditable fourth overall at the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Outdoor Athletics Championships.
The men's 4x100m relay team broke the BUCS Championship Record, as individual 100m bronze-medallist Andre Wright joined Joshua Abladey, Dannish Walker-Khan and Junior Ejehu to storm to victory in 40.28s.
Cold temperatures and driving rain could not take the spring out of Brunel's triple jumpers, who took gold and bronze in both the women's and men's competitions. BUCS Indoor Champion Shakira Whight and teammate Zara Asante jumped 12.84m and 12.39m respectively, while Kola Adedoyin's winning jump of 15.42m put him 13cm ahead of third-placed Michael Puplampu. Adedoyin emphasised the strength in depth of Brunel's team, commenting: “Michael is a great competitor and I knew that I would need to produce a big jump to get the better of him”.
Success in the horizontal jumps continued as Jermaine Olasan took bronze with a jump of 7.23m.
Another gold and bronze came in the women's 100m hurdles, as Stephanie Gaynor claimed her third BUCS gold in a time of 13.73s with Nicola Hill taking bronze in a personal best time of 14.05s. Gaynor picked up a second medal in the women's 4x100m relay along with teammates Elise Walker, Gemma Malster and Leah Moore, who took bronze in 47.48s.
Brunel's women's team finished in third place, with the men's team in fourth.
The annual BUCS championships was the highlight of this year’s Universities Week, and acted as the test event for the Olympic Stadium as part of the London Prepares series. A crowd of 46,000 watched the action on Saturday night, before a ceremony to mark the Stadium’s official opening.