Last weekend’s BUCS Championships was only the third time she has raced standard (AKA Olympic) distance, yet the first-year University of Nottingham student came away with gold in the 16-19 age group and overall silver in Norwich. She also shared a team silver with fellow Notts students Imogen Sutton (fourth) and Dylan Crowley (seventh).
Kennedy had not competed over the standard distance since Orkney 2025, another silver-medal showing, and her debut had come almost another year earlier in a Games qualifying effort at Pembroke where she made the top five including men.
‘After a good start to the season and a year of training in Nottingham, I was excited to see how it went compared to them,’ she said.
It ultimately went rather well. She finished in 2hrs 5min. 59sec., just 40sec. down on overall winner Abi Baines from Loughborough, who was competing in the 20-24 age group.
Kennedy dominated her own age group by very nearly 12min. from Birmingham’s Ella Jones.
She had a great start to the 1,500m non-wetsuit swim, coming out the water in the front pack of four with another of her Notts teammates.
The 40km bike was non-drafting and so the pack had to split.
Unusually, she did not have a great first half, which meant she lagged the leader by about 30sec. at halfway.
However, she found her legs in the second half, enabling her to overtake her rivals and lead the way into the final transition.
Although mostly flat, the 10km run still proved a relatively challenging affair on grass and gravel around the lake – particularly when mixed with some heat.
Eventual winner Baines used her expected run speed to overtake Kennedy after about 2km.
But Kennedy kept her in sight and after a consistent run, she secured second with a good gap on third, Loughborough’s Lila North (2-08-18).
‘Although not directly comparable due to fewer hills and slightly different overall distances for each discipline, I ended up 17min. quicker than my effort in Orkney, which I was really pleased with,’ she said.
‘I can see the progress over the past year in the result.’
She continues her busy calendar by competing at this weekend’s European Junior Cup event in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary.
