Athletes show promise
Laurence ChandyON MAYDAY BANK HOLIDAY weekend, the cream of O.U.A.C. travelled up to Stoke to take on the best students in the country, at this year's BUSA Championships.
With a number of the UK's international athletes competing for top honours, this event provides an opportunity for the most talented of Oxford athletes to make an impact on a big stage.
The high number of entrants for each discipline means that most events require two preliminary rounds to eliminate everyone but the finalists, with each track event involving up to and over 100 competitors.
The men achieved a number of individual successes, including six final placings. Chris Sleeman, who has been running regular PB's and was previously unbeaten over the 400m hurdles this season, qualified for the final of this event, running a 53.94s semi-final, a second under his previous best. In the final, Chris faced two Great Britain runners and last year's AAA Under 23 winner, but nonetheless came away with an impressive 5th place. In the high hurdles, Ode Odudu ran 15.49s, comfortably within the Blues time, and was unlucky not to qualify for a place in the final.
In the 400m, one of Oxford's strongest events, Matt Searles was narrowly pipped to the line in his heat by Britain's No.2 800m runner, Mark Sesay. This race took Matt under 50 seconds for the first time and in the semi-final he improved further, clocking 49.79s, being denied qualification into the final by only one place.
In the 800m, Jeremy Bradley struggled to match his success of last year, but his run of 1:57 to win his heat in front of Cambridge's best 800m runner, proves that he is starting to return to form. Nick Talbot similarly failed to improve on last year's 2nd place in the 3000m steeplechase, but managed 6th position in the final nevertheless, with a time of 9:13 - an impressive result given his seemingly cavalier approach to training.
In the field, Graham Mackay continued to excel in the hammer, throwing 45m35 to finish 7th overall. David Harding made his furthest javelin throw since coming to Oxford last year, with a massive 54m96 to take 6th place in the final. Both Graham and David surpassed the Blues requirement in their respective disciplines.
The Oxford women showed further signs of promise and appear to have the strength to take on Cambridge in the Varsity Match in a fortnight's time. Tommy Kemp, a precocious fresher who has competed at national level as a junior, seems capable of making a serious impact over the middle distances. Her time of 2:17 to finish 5th in the 800m final was impressive and helps to cement a particularly strong area of the Oxford team.
The strength of the women's middle distances derives in part from the women's cross-country team, who won the BUSA championships in Edinburgh earlier this year. Their captain for that season, Ellen O'Hare, ran a storming 1500m to win the event, providing Oxford with their first gold medal at the BUSA athletics championships in two years. Ellen tracked the leaders through 800m in 2:27 before breaking with 200m to go. A second kick at the start of the home straight allowed her to move clear from the rest of the field and win in a time of 4:28, 15 metres ahead of the second finisher.
Alison Lister provided the women with success in the field, achieving a personal best in the pole vault of 2m80, finishing 5th in the final. As the women's pole vault is not yet a scoring event in the Varsity Match, the men's team may draw on Alison to compete for them, given her competitiveness in this event.
Oxford's strength in depth was best exemplified in the relays, in which O.U.A.C. were able to field teams in all four finals. The men's 4X100m team (Sleeman, Odudu, Vasquez, Thomas) was not at full strength, but nevertheless performed admirably, coming 7th in 43:95s.
The 4X400m team (Sleeman, Searles, Gawthorpe, Bradley) was similarly without all its first choice runners, which was unfortunate given Oxford's strength in this event. Oxford believed they were capable of finishing in a medal position, but were eventually beaten convincingly by Loughborough, Brunel and Bath, finishing a respectable but slightly disappointing 4th, with the time 3:19.77.
The women's relay teams produced two fine results, and were in contention for medals. The 4X100m team (Fox, Goodwin, Davies, Harling) finished 6th in 51:40s, and seem capable of going much faster given that the changeovers were not clean. In the 4X400m, the women did one better, finishing 5th with a time of 4:05.22 (Fox, Goodwin, Davies, Kemp).
The team's performance was undoubtedly promising, given that the Varsity Match is now approaching fast. Captain Adam Ireland commented: "I believe I have the power to break the women's half blue requirement for the 100m, in light of my team's success this weekend."
Weblink: physchem.ox.ac.uk/-tyley/OUAC
4th May 2000