Some of Oxford’s best athletes competed against Cambridge in the Varsity Marathon, incorporated into the Virgin London Marathon. Despite some high profile injury withdrawals from the Oxford team in recent weeks, both sides lined up with some extremely strong and experienced runners.
In the men’s event, things were agonisingly close from start to finish. With five runners to score from each side, all ten scorers ran well to post times under the three-hour mark. Unfortunately, Cambridge nicked it by the smallest of margins in the end with an aggregate time of 14 hours 5 minutes 4 seconds to Oxford’s 14:09:26 – there were just 4 minutes in it.
Special mention must go to Chris Hartley who showed the younger competitors how to do it by being the first man home with an impressive 02:41:21, placing him 209th overall and 17th in his age category.
Other notable performances came from Rob Noble and Chris Starkey, who both achieved top four finishes with times of 02:44:14 and 02:46:08 respectively.
In the ladies’ event injuries on both teams meant that there were just two to score for the match. Marie McHugh and Rachel Cassidy put in solid performances to soundly beat the Cambridge girls by over 11 minutes, despite both overcoming some significant difficulties in the final miles. McHugh of University College recorded the quickest time of 03:39:22.
The results represented a big improvement from the Cross Country Club’s performance in December, where both teams were defeated at Wimbledon Common.
Neil Riley from the Oxford University Cross Country Club commented, “Hopefully we can build on this as a platform to dominate marathon running in the years to come.”
The British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) Marathon 2013 is decided from taking the placings of students who have entered the race. All scored well, but Marie McHugh (7th) and Chris Hartley (5th) not only contributed to the Varsity victory but also were highly impressive nationally.
Overall 41 male and 17 female students competed in the BUCS Marathon 2013, the highest number of competitors ever in the competition.
OUCCC is a large and popular club, catering for runners of all abilities and experiences, from international athletes to those who want to pick up running at university. The 123th Varsity Match will take place in December 2013.
