Varsity Athletics The 130th match against Cambridge was characterised by strong
performances on both the track and the field, culminating in
victory for the men’s Blues team, and both of the second
teams – the Centipedes and the Millipedes. However, the
girls’ Blues team were beaten by their Cambridge
counterparts, despite victories in all of the throwing events,
the high jump, and the 5000m and 400m hurdles races. Since the competition began in 1864, Oxford’s men’s
team has won 16 more times than Cambridge, and the trend
continued this year with an Oxford victory of 117-103. OUAC President Fraser Thompson urged his athletes to
‘shoe the Tabs!’ and he followed up with three
convincing victories of his own, in the 800m (1:54.6), the 5000m
(14:47.1) and the mile (4:15.6). Oxford also took third place in
the 5000m and the mile through the efforts of Ben Moreau
(15:04.0) and John Hutchins (4:20.4) respectively. To complete a
clean sweep of the long-distance races, Sam Aldridge won the
3000m steeplechase in 9:27.7. Oxford’s performance in the 400m was similarly notable
– in the Blues team, Jonan Boto came second in 49.5 seconds
and Robert Lawton finished third in 50.2 seconds. Cambridge
tended to control the long-distance events for women, although
Oxford managed to take the first two places in the 5000 metres
through impressive performances from Emily Ferenczi in first
place (17:34.6) and Courtney Birch in second (17:39.3). The men’s Dark Blues swept the board in the jumping
events – Sean Gourley leapt to victory in the long jump (7.05m),
high jump (1m95) and pole vault (4.40m). The triple jump
competition resulted in maximum points as William Senbanjo took
first place with 13.76 metres and Bayo Biobaku took second with
13.67 metres. The Centipedes team also took the top two spots,
with Dan Johnson jumping a new personal best of 12.94 metres, and
Caley Wright coming second with 12.13 metres. In throwing events, Stephen McCauley was victorious in the
shot putt (14.18m) and discus (42.94m), and finished third in the
hammer (40.26m). He was supported by Thomas Hayman, who came
second in both events, achieving a personal best in the shot of
13.39 metres. Oxford also won the javelin through James
Macfarlane’s new personal best throw of 60.31 metres, with
David Harding’s 54.71 metres second and Rota Vavilova’s
throw of 34.56 metres winning the women’s event. Chanda
Kapande took first place in the hammer with a new PB of 37.77
metres and the discus (34.57m) – followed by Susan Stockdale
(25.63m). A personal best from Olivia Reade (11.04m) won the
women’s shot, followed by Rota Vavilova (10.33), and the
trend of maximum points continued in the high jump with Ailsa
Wallace (1.68m) and Danielle Fidge (1.60m) taking first and
second places respectively. On the track, Sophie Scamps was impressive in the 400m and
400m hurdles, achieving new personal bests in both. The
Millipedes also won both of these events through Katy Sam and
Elin Leyshon’s hurdling personal best of 72.0 seconds; Sam
also took the 200m race in 27.7 seconds. Oxford also took second
place in the 200m and 400m races through the efforts of Elicia
Bravo (27.8 seconds) and Natalie Coleman (63.5 seconds)
respectively. Only the closely-fought men’s sprints had belonged to
Cambridge. Toleme Ezekiel and Russell Young ran well in both the
100m and 200m, with times of 11.4 seconds and 11.5 seconds
respectively in the 100m, and 22.9 and 23.0 seconds in the 200m.
Domination of the 110m sprint hurdles, however, belonged to
Oxford. Richard Baderin and Richard Sear left Cambridge trailing
as they earned maximum points for the Blues team, finishing first
(15.0) and second (15.7) respectively. Though beaten in the 4x400m relay, victory in the 4x100m for
the men rounded the day off before Oxbridge rivalries could be
cast aside at a dinner at New College.ARCHIVE: 3rd week TT 2004
Trebles all round for Oxford
