CHELMSFORD high jump star Poppy Lake won her second successive BUCS Nationals silver medal, to mark her comeback from an illness and injury ravaged period of inaction.

The 21-year-old former Southend High School for Girls pupil now competes for Loughborough University, and jumped 1.78m in Sunday’s final to leave Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport with the silver medal.

Lake, a third-year sport and exercise science student, was beaten only by Philippa Rogan, of University of Bath, who went just three centimetres higher.

Georgia Nwawulor also jumped 1.75m, but with Lake having achieved the height with fewer failures, the Chelmsford AC athlete got the silver.

“I’m really pleased with silver,” she said. “I know the height wasn’t quite back up but it’s getting there – I’m happy.

“I haven’t had a great indoors. I opened up really well with 1.78m in my first competition and then I just couldn’t get things together.

“One day my take off wouldn’t be right and another day my run up wouldn’t be quite on. But on Sunday it seemed to just piece back together.”

BUCS Nationals saw more than 6,000 student athletes descend on Sheffield for three action-packed days across nine sports in seven different venues.

The event, now in its fifth year, has acted as a springboard for many a successful sporting career, but for Lake she is simply happy to be back competing.

“Now I just want three or four months of heavy training, and then I’ll be at BUCS outdoors to open up my outdoor season,” she admitted.

“I personally haven’t had an outdoor season in a while. Last year I had glandular fever and the year before I dislocated my ankle. I had a really tough time.

“My aim for this year is to stay in one piece, to finish the season uninjured and to get some decent heights.”

Lake – the 2014 Essex County champion – jumped in just one competition in 2015, and three last year, so was happy to be back competing in the famous African Violet vest of Loughborough on the BUCS Nationals stage.

“Obviously being part of Loughborough makes an athlete really proud to wear the purple vest so I think every athlete from Loughborough is behind you,” he added.

“Whereas usually you just have your family and your coach, whereas here you really feel like you’ve got a whole family with you at BUCS Nationals.

“It definitely boosts you being part of a team. I think there should be more team stuff like this.”

British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the national governing body for Higher Education (HE) sport in the UK, organising leagues and competitions for more than 150 institutions across 52 different sports. BUCS Nationals is the UK’s largest annual multi-sport event, bringing over 6,000 athletes to Sheffield to compete in 9 sports