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Athletics club descend on BUCS

Two weeks ahead of the 141st Athletics varsity match, a huge number of Oxford athletes took to Bedford to provide a glimpse into varsity match fortunes and to give them a chance to compete against the best athletes in the country with inter­national representatives and medallists in almost every event.

Sadly there were a few notable absentees for Oxford who would have been at the fore­front of their events, who were missing due to a variety of reasons, many preserving their bodies for the varsity match.

Most notably though, Oxford were missing their talismanic Men’s Captain, Sam Trigg. On paper the class act of his Triple Jump field, the athlete was forced to miss the champion­ships as a condition of the scholarship he has obtained to jump in the US from next year, at New Mexico University.

Despite not fielding a full strength squad, the weekend can most certainly be consid­ered a success for the Dark Blues, whose presence in almost all races and field compe­titions overshadowed a comparatively tiny Cambridge team. The highlight for Oxford saw first year postgrad Miles Unterreiner, fresh from a glittering athletics career at Stanford, take an outstanding silver medal in the 10,000m as he was narrowly beaten by Jonny Hay, a GB senior international.

In addition to this, Oxford athletes made the finals right across the board, with many also picking up their Full Blue standards in the process. Our women’s throwers proved they were going to be hard to beat, with Oxford discus record-holder Christina Nick making the finals in discus and shot, joined by compatriot Anna Niedbala in the discus, both attaining the Blues standard. Also jumping the Blues standard were Ezra Leonce and Women’s captain Montana Jackson in the triple jump, both making their respective fi­nals and showcasing the strength of Oxford’s jumps team even without Trigg.

Further Blues standards were beaten on the track by George Gundle (400m), who narrowly missed out on making the final of the 400m, and Emily Moss, who did make the final of the 1500m only to have to pull out on the morning as a precaution. A number also only narrowly missed out, including fresher Louis Rawlings in the 800m, who showed a clear ability to run faster but was limited by the tactical nature of his races, though doing extraordinarily well to make the final in a high class field. In a similar position, Will Christofi and Jamie Parkinson both placed in the top 10 of their 5000m final, but both found themselves victim to a very slow and tactical race, not suited to their abilities. Further finalists on the track included three who set high personal bests in the steeple­chase, Dani Chattenton with 7:26 for 10th in the Ladies 2000m race, Alex Howard (6th, 9:16) and Aidan Smith (11th, 9:33) in the Men’s 3000m race.

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Commenting on the overall performance of the squad, men’s captain Trigg appreciated the difficulties of competing against sport­ing institutions such as Loughborough and Bath, but praised the strength of the squad as a whole, noting the number of Oxford athletes in finals. He finished by adding that “running, jumping and throwing against the best in the country, we showed that we’re not just a place for brains and we can be competi­tive against the best in the country”.

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