This year’s intake of freshers landed the first meaningful blow against The Other Place in the annual Freshers’ Athletics Varsity match. They may have just arrived at Cambridge but they already know the drill. This was the 10th straight victory for Cambridge against Oxford.
Laying down a marker so early on will provide a encourging base for the rest of year, as CUAC showed they will have a team full of promise, as well as their established stars. The fresher athletes showed their strength, pulling out some fantastic performances out of season and in the middle of week 5.

The women’s competition was won comfortably – 105 to Oxfords 84 – whilst the men’s match kept everyone on their toes. Cambridge fought hard to take the trophy with 96 points to Oxford’s 94. Athlete of the match was awarded to Onakeno Mario-Ghae of Girton for his exceptional performances in the Long Jump and High Jump. The latter was won with a jump of 1m 93cm, just 2cm short of Blues standard.

Onakeno Mario-Ghae was a star performer on the day

Each event features two competitors from each university. Cambridge excelled in the jumping events, with a Cambridge one-two for both the men’s and women’s long jump, triple jump and high jump events.

The Cambridge men were also particularly strong in the middle distance track events: Lloyd Hilton of Jesus won both the 400m and the 800m, Roger Poolman took victory over 1,500m, and fellow Queens’ athlete Will Ryle-Hodges came first in the 3,000m. Rebecca McLean and Joy Lisney took a Cambridge one-two in the 400m whilst Emily Dudgeon and Rebecca Moore secured another one-two in the 3,000m. The women’s team won both their relay events to round up a superb day of events.

Freshers revel in their early success against The Other Place

The match was full of strong performances that the Cambridge athletes can be proud of. This was an encouraging result for CUAC and the team look set to retain their winning streak in the main Varsity Match on May 19th with the help of this year’s crop of fresh talent.

Every fresher has lectures, most freshers end up in Cindies and some of them catch the dreaded flu yet very few have the chance, just five weeks into their first term, to represent the University in a Varsity Match. An honour it was then for the thirty athletes who travelled to Oxford last weekend for the 66^th Annual Athletics Freshers’ Varsity Match.

The men’s and women’s teams had two trophies to defend and a clean sweep of victories in 2010 to protect. And donning the light blue vest for the first time it was Rhys Hodnett and Helen Broadbridge who kicked off the day’s proceedings with convincing victories in the men’s and women’s Hammer events to take the Cambridge University Athletics Club into an early lead in both matches. Broadbridge’s throw of 43.60m was also a match record and resulted in her being awarded the Freshmen’s Medal for the best performance of the day.

These morale-boosting openers were followed up by notable performances in the 400m Hurdles from seasoned athlete, James Griffith, taking first place in a personal best time of 59.9 and debutant Johnian, Nyma Sharifi, to take CUAC’s first clean sweep of the day.

But with each university taking it in turns to share the lead in both matches it was clear the day was going to be a lot closer than last year’s light blue exhibition.

Cambridge did not have it all their way then with Oxford dominating in the middle to long distance events. Noeila Ferruz’s 2:29.4s win in the women’s 800m was outshone by Ella Waldman efforts in the 3000m for the Dark Blues. Whilst the home side’s Fraser Scott looked truly magnificent in both the 1500m and 3km race in the men’s match running three times Blues cross-country runner Matt Clark into the ground.

Despite an unfortunate disqualification in the 100m flat, Petrian, Helena Wace, was able to pick herself up and win the 100m hurdles race by a convincing margin. It was a performance that only served to confirm her status as one of the brightest new talents in Cambridge athletics after her chance discovery in the Cuppers competition last month.

Meanwhile the men’s side were thankful to have landed a Hungarian junior international in the shape of David Szabo whose experience shone through taking victories in the Javelin, Long Jump and Triple Jump. Szabo’s technical prowess was matched by decathlete Matthew Houlden who scored valuable points in the 110m Hurdles, 100m and Triple Jump.

By the time of the final events of the day – the relays - both titles were secured and the Cambridge quartets could enter the 4×100m and 4×400m events with smiles on their faces and the joy of their first victory over the Other Place to spur them on. And that they did taking victories in them all with notable legs from Wace in the ladies 4×100m and a storming final leg 400m from Tim Campion-Smith of Clare.

So it’s one Varsity, one victory for the University Athletics Club so far this year. And although a closer affair than last year, the inclusion of the victorious new intake into the well-retained blues squads of last year means the athletes look set for another successful year. Perhaps what was more remarkable of the weekend’s competition was the comments of both recent and older alumni from both universities at the impressive noise, support and encouragement generated by the visiting side. It is this team spirit and mature attitude as much as the fresh talent that won CUAC its first fixture of the new academic year.

After the double victories at Freshers’ Varsity in November, there was a feeling of excitement in the university athletics team as they travelled down to London for the annual Indoor Varsity Field events and relays match. The team made an excellent start winning both the men’s and women’s hammer competitions. In the latter, Laura Duke of Newnham broke the individual record with a phenomenal throw of 45.31 in the second round, which also contributed to the team record. Duke had a busy day, also winning the shot, finishing second in the pole vault and long jump, and competing in the discus and 60m Hurdles. Another Newnhamite, Emma Perkins had a successful day winning the high, long and triple jumps respectively and breaking the individual record in the high jump with a leap of 1m69. In the shot, all four of the Cambridge competitors threw further than anyone from Oxford demonstrating the quality in the team. The light blue women showed their strength in the field, winning five out of the eight team events.

On the track, the Cambridge women were even more dominant, losing only one event, the 60m Hurdles. Women’s captain, Kate Laidlow had a superb day, breaking the individual record in the 60m, anchoring the 4×200m team to a convincing victory and running the fastest leg in the women’s 4×400m. She was ably backed up by President, Lucy Spray who anchored the 4×400m team to another emphatic win. The Cambridge ‘B’ team also beat Oxford in the 4×400m demonstrating the quality and depth of the Cambridge women this year. In the middle distance races, the Oxford teams were extremely poor, but even without being pushed the Cambridge women showed their talent. In the 3×800m, Rose Penfold and Christie Noble both achieved the half blue standard, whilst fresher Katie Sandford only missed it by a second. In the 3×1500m the light blue women lapped Oxford three times with Rosemary Pringle breaking five minutes for the first time on the opening leg.

The men’s track team faced much harder competition from their dark blue rivals, but still came out on top, winning all but two events. In the 60m the Cambridge men clinched victory with Mark Dyble, Louis Persent and the first Oxford athlete breaking the previous individual record. Dyble had a stunning run in the 4×200m to secure a light blue victory by just a few tenths of a second. Persent, a world junior silver medallist, showed his class on the final leg of the 4×400m teasing the Oxford runner by easing round the first lap just ahead before comfortably striding away from him in the last 100m. Rory Graham-Watson also had a tough day running solid legs in the 4×200m, 4×400m and 4×800m respectively. In the latter of these he ran six seconds quicker than any other competitor in the event. The prize for the most inspirational performance of the day has to go to Eamonn Katter, who pulled out a superb leg in the 4×200m to move Cambridge into pole position, as well as running a strong leg in the 4×400m.

In the field, Oxford also pulled out some strong performances as a reminder to the light blues that they cannot be complacent going into the Varsity match in May. The dark blues had five individual victories in the field compared to Cambridge’s three. But the Cambridge teams fought hard to retain the field trophy they had won last year. Ayo Adeyemi pulled out a huge jump in the men’s triple jump to clinch victory for the youthful Cambridge team, as well as contributing to the team success in the long jump. The pole vault was the highlight of the men’s field for Cambridge who not only broke the team record, but would have still won without their top scorer counting. Nate Sharpe vaulted the blues standard height to take the Cambridge men to a convincing victory, ably supported by Tom Wagner, Josh Mouland and Alex Bates.

The Cambridge women claimed victory in the match for the first time in five years, but know they will face a much stronger Oxford side in May. At the start of this academic year, this Cambridge men’s team was seen as a development squad that would not pose a strong challenge to Oxford, but they are already proving that they have the quality to cause a big upset in May. Travelling to Oxford in May will have with it new challenges that the Cambridge squad must face, but for now there is great confidence within the team on which they hope to build over the coming weeks.

Wilberforce Road was the venue for the rather chilly 65^th anniversary of the Freshers’ Varsity athletics match on Sunday. The Freshers’ Varsity match traditionally has been a very difficult match to predict with neither side knowing what to expect from their opponents. The light blues began the day well with Lizzie Thompson of Trinity Hall and Christian Roberts of St John’s taking wins in the women’s and men’s 400m Hurdles races respectively.

Thompson certainly proved her talent in winning four individual events throughout the day; the 200m, high jump and 100m hurdles to add to her impressive 400m hurdles victory. She will be one to watch come the Blues Varsity match in May. Rosamund Healey of Pembroke took a fantastic double in the hammer and the shot, despite only taking up the hammer a couple of weeks prior to the match. Kathryn Hesketh, a former Oxford blue, has finally seen the ‘light’ this year and showed her former club that there’s no going back by taking victory in the long jump. Cambridge dominated the women’s jumps with one-twos in the high jump and triple jump, Helen Stewart of Newnham the victor in the latter. The CUAC women showed their strength in depth in the 400m and middle distance races; Katie Sandford ran a great race in the 400m winning by more than 3 seconds to confirm the light blue one-two, whilst in the 800m Rose Penfold and Sophie Dundovic eased their way to another impressive one-two. Sandford, Penfold and Thompson were joined by Taj Tomouk in annihilating a dismal Oxford 4×400m relay team, with the Cambridge women winning by more than 200m. Nikki Moss demonstrated her sprinting ability in style with an inspiring win in the 100m and a very strong 2^nd leg in the 4×100m relay. By the time Thompson took the baton on the final leg of the relay, Cambridge were already clearly in front and they made light work of securing the win.

The Cambridge men were equally impressive in destroying their Oxford rivals, with ten different athletes taking event wins. Alex Jackson of Queens showed that he could be a very useful athlete for CUAC in the future, winning the long and high jumps respectively and taking second in the triple jump behind team-mate Ismael Akram of Emmanuel. The Cambridge men’s throws squad is certainly one of the club’s greatest assets this year with no less than eight men competing at the match. John Garrity, who also plays rugby league, won the hammer and placed second in the shot behind Toby Haseler of Corpus Christi. Tom Elton deserves a particular mention for his performance in the discus. Elton, under immense pressure, came from behind in the final round to clinch the victory for Cambridge at a pivotal moment in the match. From then on, it was no longer a question of whether Cambridge would win, but rather by how much. Americans Nate Sharpe and Ross Elliot won the pole vault and 110m hurdles respectively in their light blue debut. Whilst in the longer distances, the Cambridge men proved they were a force not to be messed with producing one-twos in both the 1500m and 3000m from Tom Nutt and Alex Young in the former, and Dan Sellman and Sam Ashcroft in the longer distance. This all bodes extremely well for the Varsity cross country match in a few weeks time.

Cambridge showed time and again that they were the exceptional team, and Oxford failed to even put up any real fight. The CUAC captains Sam Dobin and Kate Laidlow should be congratulated for their efforts in leading their young teams to success in their debut match in light blue vests. It already seems that the year ahead is boasting an exciting future for Cambridge athletics.