AUTHOR

Jess O'Flaherty

Our first win in the men's blues was by James McCulloch in the 400H with a nice new PB on home soil (well...his new home). Alex Kingston, while still injured, also came third with a new PB. In a similar fashion our men's seconds 400H race was won by Zhe Xi Ho, who only re-learned hurdling a week prior after a yearlong hiatus. This set the tone for the rest of the day, eventually leading to the win on both men's blues and seconds teams in their 150th varsity. 150 years...wow.

One of the many standout performances of the day was by Oyare Aneju. This guy was unbelievable, winning 3 out of 5 of his events. Really begs to wonder what his track performances are, because he really has conquered the field. His first win was in the high jump with a performance of 1.95m. His teammate, Phillip Odugbile, came second with a performance of 1.85. The second win was the triple jump, with a best of 14.19 and it was a comfortable win (40cm to be exact). He came second in the long jump, only to Robinson's finest Morgan Treasure. Morgan's performance was 6.79m. Although not a personal best, it was his second consecutive win in this event at varsity. In Oyare's fourth event of the day, the discus, he also came out on top with a best throw of 43.28. I should add only had 3 attempts. In his final event, the shot, he also came second. This time to Oxford's Joel Bell. His throw was 12.91 to Joel's 13.56.

It's also been a golden year for Cambridge men's sprints. This year we had three athletes with sub 11 PBs: a nice problem for men's captain Oli Hector with team selections. Our men's 100 blues team was made up of Chizute Ogbedeh and fresher Samuel Ashadu. Both left the Oxford team in the dust. Chizute came on top with a speedy time of 10.72 and Samuel claimed his blue in this event with a time of 10.89 in his first year at Cambridge to clench second place. In a similar fashion, the men's seconds, made up of the other sub 11 athlete Pelumi Babalola and team 4 athlete Ben Greenleaf, also left Oxford behind. Chizute continued his winning streak with the 200, with a time of 21.84. Pelumi and Ben also did a 1,2 in the second’s race.

We had another stellar performance from fresher Sol Inglis. He dipped under 50s for the first time this year at BUCS and at varsity he did it again. He was over a second ahead of the next runner. He's also the first Oxbridge athlete to dip under 50s in over 3 years. The last to do it was Cambridge's Samuel Clarke. Team 4 coach Bridget Wheeler was smiling ear to ear. A lot of her athletes also performed well on the day.

Back to the hurdles, men's captain Oli Hector showed how it was done with a 200H win while also jogging the last 20m. He was followed by blues 400H winner James McCulloch. In the men's javelin, Remi Livesey stretched his PB to a massive 60.64 and was only beaten by Oxford's Michael Allison (now 2025 British Senior Champion) and Ruben Lombard.

To finish off the day, Chizute, Samuel, Pelumi and Morgan teamed up to win the blues 4x100. There were clean batton changes all round, much to the delight of sprints coach Hayley Ginn and hurdles coach Bob Smith. All men's teams won their respective relay matches and when it came to the presentation, there was really no doubt about the winners. The men's team really put on a display in their 150th varsity. Although I have not mentioned everyone's performance, no one was caught lacking - except possibly men's captain Oli Hector's shorts...

An amazing day to witness! Thanks all who came to support!