Michael Painter, Adam McBraida and Alice Kaye among winners at Oxford versus Cambridge varsity match

It was a fairy tale ending for the Oxford Men s Blues team on their home track in the 150th staging of the Oxford versus Cambridge varsity match, as they romped to victory over their light blue Fenland rivals in 108 points to 104. However, Cambridge more than made up for it in the women s competition, with a convincing 110-89 victory.

The men s match was a ding dong battle between the two arch rival teams all the way through what is the oldest athletics match in the world. Although arguably the most outstanding individual event performance goes to Cambridge s BUCS hammer champion Michael Painter with a match record throw of 61.13m, credit should go to Oxford s captain Adam McBraida for his three individual victories and pulling together an excellent team performance.

Inspired by his captain role, McBraida led by example in winning the 100m, 200m, 200m hurdles and anchoring the 4x400m relay, as well as placing second behind teammate Craig Morten in the 400m hurdles.

George Gundle and club president Ralph Eliot came one-two in the 400m, setting respective lifetime bests of 48.27 and 49.29. Therefore, it was of little surprise that the BUCS silver medallist team of Gundle, Eliot, Morten and McBraida combined to take a convincing 4x400m victory.

Other highlights on the men s side included a mile/5000m double for Cambridge s Matt Leach, an exciting sprint finish from Tom Frith (Oxford) to win the 800m, a 65.20m javelin victory for GB junior international Aiden Reynolds (Oxford) and two 4.00m plus clearances in the pole vault, which saw a win for Quentin Gouil (Cambridge) in 4.25m ahead of teammate and captain Zaamin Hussain. Matt Houlden (Cambridge) led Sam Trigg (Oxford) in two high quality horizontal jumps competitions (7.48m to 7.25m and 15.22m to 15.00m) as both men set PBs.

The women s competition was dominated by Cambridge with president Helen Broadbridge setting a new match record in the hammer with 50.13m and captain Alice Kaye doing likewise with 56.11 in the 400m.

Kaye returned to also take the 200m in 25.22.

Cambridge pair Katherine Turner and Rebecca Moore, the latter fresh from winning the BUCS 10,000m title, led from gun to tape to take the mile and 5000m titles respectively.

Montana Jackson (Oxford) took the 400m hurdles and triple jump, the latter with a leap of 11.43m, whilst Christina Nick won the shot.

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