TeamUCL Lockdown Challenge: What it is and how you can get involved

UCL sports clubs are competing against one another to keep active in lockdown three. The aim is to keep students moving and motivated.

Even if running or cycling isn’t your thing, the challenge also encourages walking – so sign up and go explore London or your local city/countryside as part of a (remote) team. (If you needed a legit sounding excuse to procrastinate uni work – this is it).

Almost 30 UCL sports clubs have signed up, and each will have to compete with another team every week to try and earn the most points.

A view from one of the walks 

Starting on Tuesday 26^th January, the Term 2 TeamUCL Lockdown Challenge is an initiative whereby UCL sports societies compete against one other team per week, in a rotating league format.

Running, walking or cycling each team has to beat the other club they are positioned against in the league that week by getting a higher number of points.

From Monday to Friday points are awarded for distance covered, for example ten points for cycling 100km or running/walking 22km, eight points for cycling 80km or running/walking 18km etc. and at the weekend points are awarded for meters climbed with a maximum of ten points being awarded for cycling 1500m elevation or running/walking 480m.

In honour of Sports night (/day, but who cares about the day) points earned on Wednesdays are doubled.

The Heath, what a delightful place to walk

Every Monday teams need to submit their score sheets and every Tuesday league tables and leaderboards will be announced. TeamUCL has promised prizes for both club and individual contributions. Stay tuned on Tuesday to see who’s aced week one. We’ll share updates here.

This challenge follows the initial TeamUCL lockdown challenge that took place during the second national lockdown in November 2020. 25 UCL teams took part in this first challenge, and their goal was for each society to run/walk 566miles in just three weeks.

If you want to get involved with the challenge as a means of motivation you to get moving through a healthy dose of competitive spirit, you can join any of UCL’s sports teams via the Student Union Website and most clubs are offering a free remote membership so that you can get involved from wherever home is for you.

Once you have membership all you need to do is ask a member of the relevant society for the name of the club on Strava, join, and then get recording your activities. Good luck!