BCS held the largest annual college national multi-sports championships of its kind in the UK from the 30th March to the 1st April 2012 and have been praised for the success of this year's event.

The British Colleges Sport (BCS) National Championships involved more than 2,000 students and staff from colleges across England, Scotland and Wales competing in fourteen different sports.

It was held at the University of Bath for the second year, which gave the young athletes access to some of the finest facilities in Britain as they competed in a total of forty-five events over three days.

Paul Murray, Coleg Llandrillo said "A massive thanks for all BCS's efforts over the weekend, it was fantastic and the venue superb."

College athletes taking part were aged 16 to 19 years and each had qualified to represent one of the championship's eleven regional teams the East, East Midlands, London, North East, North West, Scotland, South East, South West, Wales, West Midlands and Yorkshire & Humberside.
 

The new BCS Chairman Kevin Hamblin welcomed the competitors to the Championships at the opening ceremony which also featured guest speaker Rachel Smith, Guinness World Record Holder in Atlantic Rowing, University of Bath Director of Sport Stephen Baddeley and BCS guest for the weekend Gagandeep singh Marwah who travelled over from India to attend.  Gagandeep is Head of PE at Delhi Public School in Jaipur, India and is part of BCS Lead Further International programme which shares sporting expertise in sport development in education.
 

As well as guest speakers the competitors were entertained by South Gloucestershire & Stroud Colleges Performing Art Students and its Tae Kwon Do display team.  The ceremony was concluded with a fantastic display from Jump Rope UK.

The Wilkinson Sword, given to the region with the most points accumulated over all the events, was won by the South West who last won the sword in 2006.  

The National Championships has grown from thirteen events in seven sports when it was first held in 1979 to this year's forty-five events in fourteen sports, with support from seven BCS Student Council members and nine regional student event volunteers.

Matt Ford, Student Volunteer stated: "Being able to walk around every corner, and seeing a different sport being performed at the highest level was simply incredible, and the fact that all sportsmen and women have all come together for a weekend of sport with the highest spirit possible from start to end was amazing also." 

"The thing that blew me away was that people spoke the language of sport, the competitors of different sports and regions were getting along and enjoying the spirit of the championships, and this has all evolved from just a love of sport." 

"The power of sport is just inspiring, as were the performers competing over the weekend, it's made me realise sport can bring all different people, from all the way up in Scotland to all the way down in the South West, to one place to do what they love, and those opportunities in other walks of life don't come around often. And I felt privileged to be a part of the 2012 BCS National Championships, I loved every waking second and it will be never forgotten!"

British Colleges Sport Chief Executive John Hole said:   "The 34th BCS National Championships has been a great success; it is fantastic to see high achieving sport students competing with great sportsmanship.

"Following four consecutive years in the hands of the South East the Wilkinson Sword is now in the possession of the South West after an extremely close battle for the top 2 positions."

"We have also continued to develop the volunteering programme with more than fifteen young volunteers assisting with the running of events and organising and manning our information centre."