Town vs. Gown is one of the oldest rivalries in sport. Whereas the Merseyside football derby or the Calcutta Cup can trace their origins back to the mid-19th century, this university – ‘the gown’ – has been in conflict with ‘the town’ since the 1200s.

Of course these days there is rather less murder involved – but as twenty six boxers stepped into the ring last Wednesday night at the Oxford Union, there were certainly no punches spared. Overall, with six wins to three, the University’s pugilists came out on top.

The night began, as is customary in the boxing world, with a tense weigh-in. With that successfully negotiated, St. Benets’ student and men’s captain Iain Holland, who was fighting in the 72kg weight category, got things going. His performance showcased everything that is positive about the University squad, as he went after his opponent from Coventry ABC from the first bell. Throughout the fight the Coventry man was consistently on the defensive, and as the first round drew to a close, it looked like there a stoppage was on the cards. This proved to be the case as the referee stepped in to end the fight soon after the resumption, awarding Holland a technical knock-out.

The next few fights, as intra-club bouts, served to showcase the depth of talent residing in the University boxing scene. The likes of Lucinda Poulton, Ellie Berryman-Athey, James Kerr, Ishman Rahman, Isra Hale, and Lucy Harris all showed off some clever and technical boxing.

The only Town vs. Gown women’s bout was won by captain Claudia Havranek in impressive style. A succession of hefty head-shots ensured a clear victory, which was a visible confidence booster for the club.

Speaking to Cherwell after the match, Havranek said, “It was my first fight so it was a bit of blur, but apparently I did well so that’s a good sign!”

As the night drew on, the fights came thick and fast. A split decision saw an unfortunate loss for Oxford’s Richard Beck; a hotly contested light-middleweight fight caused controversy as the judges unanimously went in favour of Oxford’s Conor Husbands after an impossibly tight fight against James Gorgan of the Emeralds ABC. After the fight, Gorgan was magnanimous, saying, “It was a tough fight that just went the wrong way. Credit to the other guy really.”

After a short interval, the fighting resumed – and this match was a big one, with OUABC President Jack Straker donning his gloves at middleweight. The Queens’ College man was up to the task, and dispatched his opponent from Bath City ABC in the third round through another technical knock-out. With a sell-out crowd including his mother and younger sister ringside, the sighs of relief were audible and somewhat understandable.

Following this fight was no easy task, and Christ Church’s Rowan Callinan was unlucky to lose by another unanimous decision. Mags Chilaev of St. Peter’s College and Jack Prescott of Magdalen both put the dark blues back on track though, with each taking a victory thanks to two narrow split decisions.

The penultimate bout was again an internal affair, this time featuring Tony Besse and Michael Zhang. It provided entertainment, particularly in the fleet footwork of Besse, who was eventually victorious.

The final battle was inevitably at heavyweight – and unfortunately, Somerville’s Steve O’Driscoll lost yet another split decision which could have fallen either way.

Nonetheless, with midnight drawing evercloser, OUABC boasted six victories, compared to three from the combined forces of Oxford Boxing Academy, Emeralds ABC, Bath City ABC, Sandy ABC, and UCL.

The OUABC squad were of course justly proud of the final result, but what they seemed more proud of, with at least equal justification, was the strong female showing on the day. Boxing is obviously a sport which has, historically, been male-dominated. Club President Straker confirmed this, telling Cherwell that, “Notably there were five girls boxing for us on the night, whereas usually there are only one or two – if any!”

Considering the typical gender split, Claudia Havranek was effusive in her praise of the efforts made to encourage girls to get involved by the coaching staff.

“I’m really excited to be one of so many girls competing! At the beginning of the year none of us were fighting so I really must give a shout- out to our coach Dave, because he’s done a phenomenal job to get us in that ring.”

Honorary President of the club, Terry Adams summarised the positivity of the evening midway through, when he spoke of OUABC’s chances to Cherwell. “I’m greatly looking forward to it. They’ve got enough heart, enough spirit, and enough fitness to do themselves justice and win.” Having been within spitting distance of the fighters all night, this reporter can attest that the spirit on show was indeed formidable, and showed off the best of the Oxford sporting scene

When I meet Constantine Louloudis at 10am on a windy and wet Tuesday morning he tells me has already been up since 6am. He had an early morning training session, followed by a 9am tutorial on politicians in Classical Athens (arranged to give him enough time to row again that afternoon). Having only dragged myself out of bed thirty minutes earlier, I already feel inadequate. Reassuringly for my sense of self-worth, however, he declares that this is the “most intense time of the year” as the Oxford crew is in the final phase of selection and, since it is term time too, he still has a lot going on academically.

Constantine is a third year Classicist at Trinity College. He is also a bronze medal winning Olympic rower, having participated in the men’s Eights at the London 2012 Olympics. He won the Boat Race of 2011 in his first year at Oxford and again in 2013 after rusticating for a year.

Achieving a position on the Blues boat in his first year is something Constantine modestly tries to argue was because “it wasn’t a very competitive year. I might have been flattered a bit.” But being a fresher in the Boat Race already puts him in the esteemed company of rowers like Tom James, who rowed for Cambridge as a fresher and has gone on to win two Olympic gold medals in the coxless fours at Beijing and London.

Louloudis rusticated for his second year to spend time as a full-time athlete in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. This decision was “pretty easy once I realised I had a good shot at the Olympics; a home Olympics doesn’t come round very often.” His college and tutors were sympathetic to the idea of him taking a year out to pursue Olympic glory. Louloudis remarks, “Trinity were very supportive; our president certainly wasn’t adverse to the concept of having an Olympian in the college.” Certainly the prestige Constantine has gained seems to more than justify the decision.

The dream Olympic medal Constantine earned at the end of his year off didn’t come without difficulties. There was always a risk he wouldn’t compete and this became a frighteningly realistic possibility when he damaged his fifth lumbar vertebrae in late April 2012. This injury put his Olympic dream in doubt.

Constantine remembers, “if I’d been out for another couple of weeks it all would have over. That was the darkest period I’ve been through.” British Rowing left Constantine’s seat unannounced for the Olympics when all the other positions had been released on 6th June 2012, a testament to the faith they had in his ability. It was only in mid-June that his injury improved enough for his selection to be confirmed.

Whilst Constantine still ranks the Olympic final as the moment he is most proud of in rowing, it could have been even more impressive, something Louloudis acknowledges, “Crossing the line there was such mixed emotions. We had wanted gold. In my mind I think I had made my peace with silver and to get bronze was kind of a kick in the teeth. But at the same time when we crossed the line I thought we had come last.”

Constantine reveals that in the final Team GB “had a plan to just go for it. We expected the race to be over in about five minutes twenty seconds but there was a significant headwind and instead the race took around five minutes fifty seconds. That extra twenty or thirty seconds really showed. Even with 30,000 people shouting and screaming it’s a bit of a myth that they can bring more out of you than you knew you had; when your legs are gone, your legs are gone.”

Constantine believes he can improve on Bronze in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. He says, “I’m stronger now that I was then and the national team still looks in good health.”

Any men’s Eight boat for Rio 2016 will be much changed from 2012 but Constantine is likely to be a continuing presence. Preparation for 2016 is already under way in his absence and after completing his degree at Oxford in June 2015 he intends to train as a full-time professional rower again in the year preceding the next Olympics.

However the prospect of remaining a fulltime rower indefinitely is something Constantine reveals is “not very appealing”. In his year out, he says, he “didn’t enjoy the break from academic studies.”

Moreover, there’s something about the Oxford rowing lifestyle that Constantine particularly enjoys. He tells me that, “I love rowing at Oxford because there is so much else going on. You can find loads of other things to do socially and academically but that’s not the case when you’re a full-time athlete. I’d like to emphasise how much I enjoy the Oxford bit more than the national team bit. I just feel really privileged that I can row to a high-level but also go out in the evenings in Oxford and almost forget that I do it.”

Ten to twelve training sessions a week totalling around thirty five hours of rowing is enough to keep the Oxford rowers at an international standard. Constantine says, “the programme is a really high standard here. It’s testament to how good the Oxford University Boat Club is and how well it’s run.”

However, thirty five hours of rowing a week does take its toll, and on his social life as he realises. “I try my best; it’s sleep that suffers,” he says. When I ask him how many hours he spends on his academic work he laughs and jokes, “I probably better not put a figure on that one”.

Clearly sacrifices have to be made to keep up rowing but Constantine believes “Whilst there are more things I could do socially and it does take time out of academics, it is all worth it.

“It’s not the Olympic medals or winning the races – it’s being in a team with guys you get on with really well and who you’ll count as friends for a really long time.”

On the Boat Race Louloudis says that it is “almost comparable” to the Olympic final in terms of intensity. He has his sights firmly set on this year’s race which he says he is “guardedly confident” for.

Constantine aims to guide Oxford to victory again. He confesses, “I’d like to be able to look back at four years at Oxford with four boat race wins. And I’m halfway there

Looking for a winter resort with no extreme weather, imminent terror threats, stray dog problem or tragicomically poor accommodation? The search is over folks, look no further than Sochi, host of the Winter Olympics.

Much of the media build-up has focused on these banal practicalities, just as discussion about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar usually centres on the problem of its climate. In both cases, however, these are simply logistical problems. If Western sports organisations lowered their expectations of luxury accommodation a little, they would be entirely solvable. The real issue with both Sochi 2014 and Qatar 2022 is human rights.

Where to start? The exploitation and abuse of Nepalese labourers preparing for Qatar 2022 perhaps – forty four migrant workers died last summer? Or the mysterious disappearance of hundreds of Russian journalists since the 1990s? There are simply not enough pages in this newspaper to comprehensively deal with these countries’ human rights abuses.

Let’s focus, then, on one area: LGBT rights.

Neither Russia nor Qatar comes anywhere near the bottom of the pack when it comes to gay rights. Nonetheless, male homosexuality can land you a short stay in prison in Qatar, whilst the Kremlin recently passed a law banning gay ‘propaganda’. It is important not to let hysteria cloud the facts here. Russia, despite its evident homophobia problem, has no law against homosexuality itself; indeed, the new law recalls Thatcher’s notorious Section 28, repealed in Britain only fourteen years ago.

Armchair grumbling about Sochi and Qatar usually proceeds along the lines that “we should never have given them the games in the first place”. This is an important debate that must resurface when the next major sporting tournament hosts are to be decided. For now, however, we must focus on how to approach the tournaments while they are on.

Sensationalists enjoy speculating about the immediate implications of both nations’ intolerance. Will gay snowboarder Belle Brockhoff be allowed to proudly publicise her homosexuality during her stay in Sochi?

Considering the Kuwaiti Director of Public Health’s revelation of sinister future measures that will “help us detect gays who will then be barred from entering any of the GCC member states”, will gay fans or footballers even be allowed into Qatar in 2022?

These questions, however, are the wrong ones to be asking. In all likelihood – bearing in mind that countries primarily regard major sporting events as an opportunity to showcase their nation to the world – the events themselves will pass without controversy.

The point is thus though: their hypothetical leniency will only be a good thing, but we must not forget that to focus on the exceptions as some kind of victory would be a defeat in itself, a submission to these governments’ façade of tolerance.

Many argue that sport provides a haven in which people of all backgrounds, colours and sexual orientations can come together to compete for, or support their team.

Take the example of English football. Though homophobia remains, and the sport is by no means blind to race, it has nevertheless produced black role models for countless children, undermining hatred and prejudice.

Soundbite declarations of the power of sport, however, are dangerous if misused. For sport to have any power, changes on the pitch must act as a springboard for changes outside the sport; to have any wider societal significance, the importance of the game must transcend the pitch. Crucially, this will not happen in Sochi or Qatar. The inclusiveness will be forced and and, most importantly, will not last.

Both the Olympics and the World Cup are, for their host countries, publicity stunts above all. We must always remember that whatever tolerant gestures are made by our Russian and Qatari hosts, they are simply painting over the cracks. It is our duty to ensure we do not let such empty gestures conceal the reality