Despite Cambridge’s home advantage, spirits were high in the Oxford camp as their athletes travelled to Wilberforce Road for the 141st varsity match. Having regained the trophy last year after a barren spell, the men were hoping to repeat their success, whereas the women looked to overturn a three match losing run, though both knew the result hung finely in the balance.
The day started well for Cambridge, as was expected, as GB hammer thrower Michael Painter led in his favoured event, which proved to be the first of his three wins on the day in the throws. Oxford responded well, though, as captains Sam Trigg and Montana Jackson led from the front with victories in the long jump. Both would follow this result up with further wins, Trigg with a match-record leap of 15.37m and Montana with victories in both the 400m hurdles and the triple jump. In the latter of these, he produced a huge personal best to break 12 metres for the first time and record a place in the top 100 of UK all-time jumps.
President Adam McBraida then continued to provide an example to the team with a victory and Blues standard in the 400m hurdles, despite a brave challenge from Alastair Stanley of Cambridge, who finished only a fraction behind. It was at this point that the first major upset of the day occurred, the first of many marginal battles that Cambridge would unfortunately come out on top in, as Billy Pinder took a hard-fought victory from the front in the 800m, edging out Louis Rawlings in the home straight by 0.07 seconds.
After this, Cambridge started to build momentum, as they subsequently took victory in both the men’s and women’s 100m and 400m, with Alice Kaye and Barney Walker winning excellent 400m races. The victorious Walker was able to avenge his infamous fall five metres from the line in 2014.
The Light Blues then took the narrowest of victories in the men’s 100m, with only the width of a vest separating Isaac Kitchen-Smith from victory, as well as in the high jump and the pole vault. In the high jump, both events were lost on countback, as jumpers from Oxford and Cambridge both cleared the same height, and the same was true in the women’s pole vault, with captain-elect Sam Rawlinson sadly denied victory.
Also in the pole vault, while recovering from wrist surgery following a freak training accident, GB international Rowan May vaulted using only one hand to obtain his full blue, clearing a highly impressive 2.80m. Having been injured for varsity in both of his first two years, Rowan will be hoping to arrive next year fully fit, at his best a 5.25m vaulter.
Oxford then started to re-gather their momentum, but sadly it would be too late to salvage either the women’s or men’s match. In the 1500m, Will Christofi led a hard race from the front for a big PB and a full blue, only just being overhauled by one Cambridge runner who used his finishing speed having been dragged round. Adam McBraida returned to the track for the 200m hurdles, an event that he has made his own the last few years with four successive wins, to take a commanding victory and a second Blues time of the day. George Gundle followed this with a big PB in the 200m flat to avenge his 400m defeat and end a highly prolific Varsity career on a high.
Of particular note in the women’s match for Oxford was Grace Clements, a Commonwealth Games bronze medalist in the heptathlon, who provided strong performances in multiple events in the field, competing against the university where she was an undergraduate.
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Also playing a vital role was Anna Niedbala, who produced a dominating performance in the discus for a comfortable victory. Such performances would sadly not be enough to overturn a terrific Cambridge performance across the board, but provided two varsity matches which many claimed to have been the highest calibre that they had ever seen. The effort that every single athlete put in to their event is typified by Dani Chattenton in the women’s 2000m steeplechase, who briefly fainted with exhaustion at the end of her race, having being pipped for the victory and within a second of the Blues time.
Strong performances would also sadly see Cambridge take both seconds matches in a very closely contested competition. This was despite particularly notable efforts from Ralph Eliot (200m and 400m winner) and Adam Speake (1500m winner), both competing in their last varsity match of prolific Oxford careers.
