Oxford’s Modern Pentathlon club (OUMPA) has always been strong, and its members lived up to their reputation with a convincing victory in both the men’s and women’s varsity matches, held over the Easter Vac. Katie Hickson was also victorious individually for the women.
Not to be confused with Ancient Pentathlon, the Modern kind was originally designed to replicate the demands of a spy behind enemy lines, incorporating fencing, swimming, horse riding and a combined event of shooting and running. As such, unlike many other multi-event sports, a good pentathlete is required to have great technical ability in very different areas; a requirement that makes the sport extremely challenging, and attracts athletes from many different backgrounds.
This year, Oxford entered varsity on the back of significant BUCS success, so they could be confident of their chances. However, there was reason to be wary of their opposition, with Cambridge claiming the team title at BUCS and Chattenton unable to compete at varsity, leading to an intriguing battle ahead for the two-day event held at Bradbourne school.
Oxford took a commanding advantage from the first event on Day One in both six-to-score competitions, out-fencing their opponents to take 300+ point advantages, a result of solid performances from every individual, led by Hugo Fleming, Kouji Urata (960 points each) and Leigh Paton (1040 points). After the swimming, Urata took the overall lead, with a second-placed finish, his team once again packing in close behind to extend their advantage. On the women’s side, Cambridge launched a fightback and took a slight lead into the ride, Henny Dillon taking her second individual victory of the day.
The next event, the ride, is the most unpredictable of the series, with competitors required to use a horse on which they have had no experience, so there is always an accompanied risk that horse and rider will not respond well together. Riders are scored according to the number of jumps that they knock down. Oxford again produced a solid performance to take commanding advantages into the final events of both competitions. In the individual standings, consistency proved to be key for the women as Henny Dillon picked up no points and thus slipped down the standings, while Katie Hickson faced only a slight deficit with her best event yet to come. The men’s competition was more finely poised, with the majority of the field only split by a small number of points, so all was up for grabs.
It was indeed Hickson who stormed to victory in the combined event, using the speed that has earned her selection for the cross country Blues team for the past two years to take a repeat of her individual victory last year. The men’s finish proved to be much closer, with Alex Fraser (O) and Paul Hodgson (C) separated only by a photograph finish.
It was Hodgson that ultimately triumphed as a result of his fastest time of the day in the combined event, with a total 5256 points to 5248 after all five events had been completed. Despite this, Oxford managed to restrict Cambridge to a narrow victory in the combined event and thus hang on to regain the varsity trophy that they had relinquished last year. Victory in both reserves’ matches only added to what was already an incredibly successful weekend for the Dark Blues.
