Hat-trick of golds for Kara Hanlon at British Uni Champs

Stornoway swimmer Kara Hanlon splashed onto the podium with a hat-trick of gold medals, and a silver, at the 2020 British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Long Course Championships in Sheffield.
Kara with her four medals from the weeknd.Kara with her four medals from the weeknd.
Kara with her four medals from the weeknd.

Swimming for Edinburgh University, Hurricane Hanlon once again blew away the country’s top university swimmers in two of the three breaststroke distances as she maintained her vice-like grip on a stroke she continues to dominate.

In the 50m heats Kara cruised into the final with a swim of 32:01 before she landed her first goal of the weekend with a swim of 31:65, keeping Loughborough’s Megan Morrison at bay in second place.

The next race was 200m and it took a photo finish to pick a winner before Hanlon and Katie Matts as they left the chasing pack trailing as they exploded into a two person scrap for gold.

The pair touched home almost at the same time but Katie had stretched that little further to take the gold in 2:28:07 with Kara just behind in 2:29:88 and Morrison, the third placed finisher, a distant four seconds behind the top two.

Hanlon, Matts and Morrison had hogged the three spots on the podiums in both the 50m and 200m breaststroke events and the 100m proved to the same with this trio of super swimmers again ahead of the pack.

Kara touched the wall to land another gold in 1:08:63 with an almost full second cushion over Matts with Morrison in third.

Her fourth medal, and third gold gong of the weekend, came in the 4x100m medley where Edinburgh University took top spoils in 4:06:18 ahead of Loughborough in 4:08:37 and Stirling in 4:19:94.

Joining Kara on the middle step of the podium in the 400m medley were her Edinburgh team mates Kat Greenslade, Tain Bruce and Lucy Hope.