You probably didn’t notice, but some of you at least have been sharing lectures with one of the best young triathletes in the world. Of course it is easy to say that, but then it isn’t easy to finish tenth in the World Junior Championships — held recently in London — or to win German National Junior Champion- ships. It’s not so much a walk in the park as a brisk swim, cycle, and run, but St. Catz’ very own Sophia Saller has been making her mark on the world stage, and it was a massive privilege to ask her a few questions about her recent achievements.

We began, as you’d imagine, by chatting about her London success. Sophia talked of often feeling like “the lone one left training” in preparation for the event, but went on to say that “it is crazy how much motivation you get from being given the chance to race on a world stage in front of your friends and family!” I asked her about how she had mentally prepared for competing on such a big stage, and her response said much about how despite the fact that “there was no real pressure on me” she was a woman on something of a mission.

She said “It took a while to sink in that I would be racing ‘at home’ in my first World champs!” And went on to add that going into the race “I knew that I was in great shape and just wanted to go out there and do as well as I can, to make all the training worth it. The event itself was quite special to me — having volunteered at the Olympics there a year ago. So I was massively excited to race, but feeling “at home” and calm at the same time.

“The race itself was amazing, I often heard friends by the course cheering me on — despite the horrendous English weather!” 

Of course being an Oxonian leaves little time to relax, but Saller was able to take a short holiday before coming up and she said that it “gave me the chance to just chill for a while before my “normal life” kicked in again.” To talk about this “normal life” finds Sophia at her most elo- quent; she said that “coming back to Oxford always brings me back to reality and makes sure that I don’t forget that you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t work for it.”

For me the idea of getting up for lectures full stop is somewhat daunting, but Saller’s work ethic makes a mockery of mine as she tells me, on balancing training and studying, that “I do Maths – which means there’s no time I have to spend in a lab and I can work whenever I can/ need to. That might mean that I come back from training in the morning and sit on my desk and work while eating my breakfast — there’s a lot one can do in a day if the time is filled in efficiently.”

We then moved to discuss the idea of nationality. At the minute the issue is very topi-cal, with naturalisation debates wherever you look, but there was no such confusion in this case as Sophia was born and spent most of her childhood in Germany. She does talk of a great affection for Britain though. 

“In my room at uni, I used to have a GB rug on the floor and a German flag on the wall – in Germany I’m called the Brit and here I’m the German. So I’ve given up on deciding which na- tion I should cheer for in sporting events and just go for both — which makes it slightly awkward sometimes when there is a Brit racing a German.”

I’d always wondered how one became involved with something as niche as triathlon, but Sophia’s answer made a lot of sense.

”I got slightly bored of just swimming up and down a pool (‘counting tiles’ as some people like to call it) so I tried out an Aquathlon (a swim followed by a run) and loved it. After a few more of them, I had qualified for the London Regional Team for the British Youth Triathlon Championships three years ago — never having ridden a bike before.”

However it’s not all about the elite level, as Saller makes clear how much she appreciates the Oxford sporting infrastructure, as “train- ing with people makes it easier to get up early and train in winter or run/cycle in the rain and cold.” While she was passionate about her cur- rent role as women’s captain of the triathlon club – “because I want to give some of the ex- perience and experiences I’ve gathered in Tri- athlon to other people and hope they enjoy the sport as much as I do!”

With an athlete as talented as Sophia who is clearly also so academically gifted , the temptation must be to slack off on the studying. Alas not, “I see University and getting my degree as a clear priority. I would have never allowed myself to dream of even starting at the World Championships two years later. I guess that is the excitement of it. The coming season will be a big step up for me — from Juniors to U23/Senior racing, which also means doubling distances. So my plan at the moment is to just see how everything goes. Although she mentioned that “even in that case I think I would get “bored” by just training, there would have to be some- thing that keeps my head occupied as well.

It is Sophia’s focus which sets her apart, but then, as she put it at the end of our interview, “I guess that’s what Oxford does to you.” 

While the Varsity rugby match has the glorious surroundings of Twickenham as a home, the football equivalent has led a more nomadic existence in recent years. However this week Fulham FC’s new owner, Shahid Khan, has expressed a strong desire to see the match return to its sometime-home of the West London side’s Craven Cottage for its 130^th edition.

OUAFC’s Treasurer and goalkeeper Ben Szreter told Cherwell that “we are hopeful of securing a return of the varsity match to Craven cottage – a fantastic venue.” In an allusion to the match’s scheduling he went on to comment “I think the match on the day of the boat race will make the day very special for all fans. However discussions are very preliminary at the moment.”

In light of that, and a Fulham spokesman’s cautious remark that “we are in discussions to bring it back”, it’s probably best to not get carried away at the news. Even if, after a few years which has seen the fixture played in the pleasant but slightly dingier surroundings of Oxford’s very own Kassam Stadium, and the Cambridge United’s Abbey Stadium we could be forgiven for salivating at the prospect of a Premiership-standard home. Despite this though, the concept of Sunday April the 6^th becoming a veritable festival of Oxbridge sport has left some excited – with an Exeter 2^nd year lawyer marvelling at the poetry of the fact that, should these discussions prove fruitful, the Spring evening will see the rowers directly pass the venue of the day’s earlier Varsity tussle.

It’s worth taking a moment to consider the appropriateness of Craven Cottage too, as the throw-back style ground, complete with the cottage of its name, its pleasant riverside setting, and its turnstiles – prized as some of the few old-fashioned stadium entrances left in the upper echelons of English football – all combine to give the venue a traditional atmosphere and a sense of charm which go hand in hand with one of the oldest sporting rivalries of all.

Shahid Khan has now both removed the bizarre Michael Jackson statue from Craven Cottage’s façade and potentially provided a prestigious home for the University football match – not a bad beginning to his ownership, all told.

It may be 163 days until the next Oxford-Cambridge boat race, but we can definitely say that the countdown to the 2014 edition of this historic competition has started – and not just because we’ve worked out how long it is until it happens. Yesterday marked the unveiling of the 4 squads of men and women who will spend very little time in the College bar and an awful lot of time on icy rivers this winter, all with the aim of racing down the Thames next April. The squads announced include all of the rowers who will be attempting to make up either the respective Blue boats, or the reserve boats – Goldie and Isis.

As always, the squads are stacked with Olympians and other international rowers, all of whom are well, stacked. Highlights on the men’s side include the presence of Oxford University Boat Club President Malcolm Howard, and lucky charm Constantine Louloudis. Howard of course has twice represented Canada upon the biggest stage, while undergraduate classicist Louloudis will hope to make it three Boat Race victories out of three.

Including those two, the men’s Oxford squad welcomes back a grand total of 9 trialists from last year, with other returning Blues Karl Hudspith – last year’s victorious President – and Sam O’Connor, along with Joe Dawson, Nicholas Hazell, Iain Mandale, Tom Watson and cox Laurence Harvey who were integral to the Isis second string crew which also made it to Mortlake first last Easter.

Standout Oxford additions include the likes of Storm Uru, Keble’s New Zealander who won Olympic Bronze at Eton Dorney, and Zimbabwean undergrad James Fraser-Mackenzie who competed in the single scull at the same Olympic meeting.

This will be the last year to see the Women’s event take place at a different location and on a different occasion to the men’s, but they equally announced a strong looking set of rowers focused upon remaining superior to their Cantab. counterparts. With a strong selection of returners from last year such as Alice Carrington-Windo, Anastasia Chitty, Harriet Keane and OUWBC President, Maxie Scheske, they should prove formidable.

We can’t forget the opposition though, and with the Other Place announcing their own Canadian Olympian in Anthony Jacob alongside President Steve Dudek and former Boat Race winner Mike Thorp, the Dark Blue squad will have to put in the hard yards this winter in order to repeat last year’s victory and narrow the overall gap to Cambridge –  I’m sure none of them will forget the 4 win deficit as they train through the dark mornings to come.

The respective squads’ preparations will begin in earnest in late November as they race on the Tideway for the first time this season in the Fuller’s Head of the River Fours, expect coverage of that here.