For one group of Oxford sportsmen and women Saturday was a weekend of new experiences; a first trip beyond the Oxford ring road since the start of term, a first experience of Cambridge nightlife and, most importantly, the first taste of competitive sport.
After just four weeks to familiarise themselves with modern pentathlon, on the 9th November thirteen novice pentathletes headed down to Cambridge for their first ever competition. Without the riding element, the competition involved fencing all the other athletes, a 3km run, a 200m swim and finally pistol shooting, testing newly-learned skills and accuracy as well as fitness. Determined not to be put off by the strangeness of the sport, the athletes threw themselves into all the disciplines and despite the overall results not going Oxford’s way, there were plenty of positives to be taken from the experience.
The morning started off well with particularly strong fencing performances from the men’s team who were leading by twenty points after this phase. Things were still looking tight at the halfway stage, with the men’s and women’s teams separated by just thirty points and onepoint respectively, thanks to some strong runs by the likes of Chris Cronkite and Tom Outram. There were further strong individual efforts in the swimming, with Katie Treadwell winning the women’s heats and James Goetz coming second in the men’s. Unfortunately Cambridge dominated the final shooting event, meaning that when the final scores came in, the women were narrowly beaten by 2749 points to 2313 and the men even more closely by 2980 to 2690.
Despite the obvious disappointment, the competition was a promising show of new talent. For many it was a first taste of fencing and shooting. The teams certainly enjoyed their first taste of modern pentathlon, and Cambridge nightlife.
