AUTHOR

Oli Hector

Our first blue’s win of the day went to Leonie Brunning (first of many…), with a strong performance and PB in the Shot Put. The Allies also won the event with Maike Deckert winning with a distance of 10.25m. The first track event was the 400m hurdles, which had some great performances against a strong Oxford field, a number of our athletes, including captain Jess O’Flaherty, who had only taken up the event this year managed to PB. The notorious CUPV squad were up next with particularly impressive vaults from Lauren Healy and Rachel Marsh securing us some hard earned points. Our next highlight on the track was the 100s, where we had some blistering speed in the Allies from Nat McEvoy and in the Blues some outstanding performances from Helen Pretorius and Anise Mellodey, with Helen winning in a time of 12.35s (the fastest in recent memory).

The match was fairly even at this point in the day for the Blues and the Allies were starting what was looking like an insurmountable lead. The Hammer followed with some more dominant throws from Leonie Brunning and Maike Deckert. We then had some phenomenal runs from Bea Wood and Niamh Bridson-Hubbard in the 5k, with Bea breaking the match record set last year by Phoebe Barker in a time of 16:16.36. This was followed by another light blue win in the steeple from Niamh Thompson in a time of 7:05.80. The winning streak was continued by Reese Robinson in the Triple jump who amassed a distance of 12.11m. In the Allies, Talia Turay also secured a win which helped increase our lead at this point in the day. Allies success was continues in the 100m hurdles with a 1-2 finish from Georgia O'Dell and Bryher Smith.

Another Leonie Brunning win came next in the High Jump with her fellow light blue competitor Annie Durand-Marandi maximising points in the event for the blues. The Allies High Jump also saw some impressive jumps from Mati Strevens and FunSunshine Kellah-Nash. Next up was the 400m where the allies saw a strong 1-2 finish from Maya Vandermark and Charlotte Lord. One highlight of the day came from Alligator Maike Deckert in the Discus who’s best throw of 35.85m would have won the blues match, we were also able to 1-2 in both the blues and allies Discus with throws form Kaila Bogards, Leonie Brunning and Rachel Mckinney.

In the 200m there were some light blue wins from Helen Pretorious and Maya Vandermark, making the blues match scores very close as we approached the end of the day. A win from Carys Ward in the javelin made the underdog blues team hopeful as the match was looking like it’d come down to the relays. On the other hand throws from Maike and Zoë Wright secured victory for the allies. A loss in the 4x400 blues meant a narrow defeat in the match which ended 110-101. The allies with a strong victory of 120-90. Congratulations to all the athlete that competed!