Adam's men Even up the scores
Laurence Chandy
SATURDAY SAW THE 126th Athletics Varsity Match take place, at Iffley Road. OUAC were keen to repeat last summer's emphatic victory, especially in light of the success of the other major Varsity sports this year.
On paper, it seemed that Cambridge had the advantage - with some of OUAC's most talented athletes leaving Oxford last year, the Oxford team had to instead draw on a very strong team spirit and hope for some good performances on the day, to deny Cambridge glory.
The men's competition was fiercely contested; with both teams neck and neck for points throughout the day, it became evident that the overall result would come down to the relays.
On the track, the Oxford men laid down the gauntlet from the start with an excellent win in the 400m hurdlles by Chris Sleeman, in a PB of 53.8. Chris was followed home by Richard Pritchard-Gawthorpe in 3rd place.
The sprints were undoubtedly one of Cambridge's strengths but Oxford prevented Cambridge from building up a sizable lead, fresher Finlay Wright coming 2nd in both the 100m and 200m to score crucial points for the team.
Nick Talbot, Oxford's Cross Country captain, led the field home in the 3000m Steeplechase in a time of 9:20 with Joe Collins finishing a solid 3rd place.
Oxford dominated the hurdles thanks to two excellent performances by ex-tab, Oke Odudu, who was supported well by John Crawshaw and Pritchard-Gawthorpe.
Matt Searles ran a storming 49.3s to win the 400m within the Blues time, followed home closely by Sleeman in 2nd place.
After taking 2nd place in the 800m, Jeremey Bradley went one better in the 1500m, running an awesome race to win in 3:56. Valuable points were also won in the 5000m, where Talbot and Josh Funder finished 2nd and 3rd.
In the field, the Oxford continued to gain vital points. Hugh Jenkin won the long jump with a best of 6m61 with Pritchard-Gawthorpe also jumping well to finish 3rd. Captain Adam Ireland jumped a massive 13m99 to win the Triple Jump, ahead of Rob Heaton who came 2nd with 13m81. Ireland's jump, the biggest of his career so far, was long enough to earn him a Blue.
Meanwhile, in the throws, Brad Gray and Phil Tyley achieved a 1,2 in the Discus, with throws of 38m58 and 36m37 respectively. Gray also performed well in the Shot along with OJ Choutka, the pairclaiming 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Graham Mackay was unlucky to be denied victory in the hammer but nevertheless finished a strong 2nd with a throw just exceeding 43m.
In the javelin, Oxford showed strength in depth, three of the four Blues and 2nd team throwers exceeding the Blues requirement of 55m. Steve Melber won the competition with an enormous 59m91 throw, Dave Harding finished 3rd with a Pb of 55m92 and Ben Lloyd won the 2nd team event with 55m12.
The relays saw victory shared between the 2 teams, with Cambridge winning the 4X100m and Oxford the 4X400m (Sleeman, Wright, Hollingsworth, Searles). The Blues beat Cambridge overall with an eventual score of 110 to 102, captain Ireland was clearly over the moon, lifting the cup for the 2nd year in succession. By way of tradition, he threw himself in the water jump after collecting the trophy.
The Men's 2nd team were narrowly beaten, by a margin of only 3 points. Excellent wins were had by Ben Dunnett in the 400m, Andy Fargus in the 5,000m, Gerald Clancy in the Steeplechase, Simon Danielli in the long jump and Ben Lloyd in the Javelin.
The women's match also proved to be closely fought, although Cambridge eventually ran away with the lead. The Oxford women were up against a very high quality team, but dug deep to pull out some excellent performances, keeping the competition open till the final stages of the afternoon, though.
The ladies matched the Tabs on the track, clearly having more depth in the middle distances, whilst Cambridge were stronger in the sprints.
The 400 hurdles was an excellent race in which Rebecca Wright, the Cambridge captain, had to run a Varsity record in order to hold off Oxford's Liz Fox. Liz ran an all-time Oxford record herself, with the time 65.6s, smashing her PB and attaining a Blue in the process.
In the 800m, two of Oxford's best athletes annihilated their opposition. Ellen O'Hare won the race for the third year in succession, followed home by fresher, Tommy Kemp, both running within the Blues requirement.
Cambridge held ascendancy in the sprints, but valuable 2nd places were achieved by Leanne Woods in the 100m and Women's captain Bob Goodwin in the 200m.
Anna-Marie Harling and Sally Hogan performed well in the high hurdlles, finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively, Anna-Marie breaking 16s for the first time.
The 400m began controversially with a badly called full start - the runners being called back to their blocks having already ran 100m of the race. Tommy Kemp and Sarah Davies ran admirably all the same and were unlucky not to win the race.
The 1500m was another exemplary performance by the girls, Ellen and Emilie Giles coming home comfortably ahead. In the 5000m, Kelley Wilder ran a stunning race to reclaim both her title in this event from 1998 and her Varsity record. After tracking Tab, Louise Kelly for the entire race, Wilder kicked with 400m to go, finishing in the time 16:36.7.
In the field, Oxford failed to match Cambridge, although there were still a number of impressive performances. Camilla Carmichael high jumped 1m65, attaining the Blues requirement in her first competition for the club, and Bettina Lotsch won the triple jump with a jump of 11m91, also achieving a Blue. Oxford came 1st and 2nd in the javelin, courtesy of Clare Wenham and Sherree Halliwell. Karen Noonan and Emily Buckwell also competed well in a number of disciplines.
The Oxford women won the 4X400m (Fox, Davies, O'Hare, Kemp) but lost to Cambridge overall by 83 points to 96.
The women's 2nd team beat the Tabs convincingly however, with a total score of 95 to Cambridge's 79. The ladies won every track event, with particularly strong contributions from Elise Steinberg in the sprints, Bethan Hopewell in the middle distances and Kirsty Hooper and Kate Warner in the field.
Thus, the honours were shared out between the two clubs, the men's Blues success notably their 6th victory in the last seven years, extending Oxford's overall lead to 66 wins to Cambridge's 53
It meant skipper Adam Ireland, who is stepping down as President at the end of term, signed out in style. He will be replaced next year by Chris Sleeman.
18th May 2000