College League Organisers

Niamh Thompson

Early life and Education:
When she was in Year 6, Baby Niamh dreamt of becoming a mountain goat, but somewhere along the line this dream went horribly wrong and she is now heading into her third year studying Theology at Homerton (after which she may be permitted to graduate to the title Young Niamh). According to Google, Theology is “an ancient intellectual discipline consisting of systematic study of the divine, with continuing and momentous social significance around the world today”.

Such skills are very relevant to College League, as ancient intellectual discipline is probably required for Niamh to fulfil her promise of implementing George Ogden’s college league formula (less intellectual formula-critics have made claims including “such nonsense as this formula may harm the mathematical reputation of the club” and “please not the college league formula it is very embarrassing”). Systematic study of the divine is the only way to describe Niamh’s year spent as college league apprentice learning under the wise Alex Burns, and the fact that there were no College League races that only attracted 2 participants this year is of pretty momentous social significance, probably to the world.

It is now only a matter of time before the inevitable Athletics Weekly article claiming that that Freshers 5k is the new Night of the 10K PBs (although there has been a wave of concern and discontentment in the club following Niamh’s culturally offensive threat to make the race actually 5000m this year).

Family Background and Relationships
The club can look forward to Baby Niamh handling College League as smoothly and efficiently as she does a kilo of baked beans (1min 17 seconds) and hurdling any college league related problems as easily as she does a steeplechase barrier. Additionally, her handover documents should be useful in Poynting her in the right direction and her many years of experience running for Hercules Wimbledon will leave her well-equipped should the St Neots invoice again be misdirected to South London.

Whilst most in the club are satisfied with a Good Relationship With Phil O’Dell, this lanky leveret allegedly possesses a special bond that far fewer can make a claim to – a Good Relationship With the Gog Magog Hills, possibly due to living closer to them than she does to SJP. Whilst Baby Niamh will hopefully manage to avoid any of the minor errors that previous Harey race organisers have been known to make, such as mis-marshalling a small selection of race participants around a shorter course or waving someone under the wheels of a moving vehicle, her childhood spent dressing up as a WWII evacuee with her twin every weekend will have left her well-prepared to flee in case of an emergency.

Athletic Career and General Goodness for the Sport:
Any questions directed at Baby Niamh regarding her welfare, race performances or general state of being will always result in the answer “yeah I’m alright” (or occasionally “I can’t be bothered anymore so I had a full pack of dry bagels for dinner last night”). However, I would go a step further than “alright” and say that neev is a warm, funny and kind friend who has bean loved by all in the club since her first appearance on September Training Camp as a fresher. She is a brilliant athlete, making a splash in the BUCS final and winning Blues steeplechase Varsity in her first year, and is a Known Solid Pick for BUCS fantasy XC –

it is probably safe to say that Baby Niamh is the best thing to happen to College League since the last time Baby Niamh happened to College League.

Olly Tonge

Don’t be fooled by Olly’s appearance – he isn’t actually Cal the Dragon. Whilst it may look like he’s just slicked his hair back, that’s actually from all the sweat he’s produced on the elliptical. This is because if there’s one thing that Olly enjoys more than running, it’s being injured. Fortunately, this means that he’ll have plenty of time to focus on organising this year’s upcoming college league races.

Perhaps more importantly, is he actually qualified for the job? Well, as much as you’ll hate to hear it, he is a seasoned o********r (wrong number of letters? Who cares – it isn’t a real sport anyway), which means he loves looking at maps and planning routes – watch out @Baby Niamh, he’s coming for your job!

Whilst it may seem that Olly is the perfect fit for this role, please note that he has a habit of significantly underestimating distances, so expect megacross to be even nastier than usual – but maybe, just maybe, this year the Freshers 5km will actually be 5km. Who knows…

Cameron Deverill

With a great love of statistics (or maybe not) and also organisation (maybe even less), this member of the College League Office dislikes Cross-Country and prefers to run without scenery, round in circles in the 1500m (though will dabble in the 800 and 3000 too). A talented Musician (Bassoon & Piano) who is also renowned for an unsurvivable Cassowary-esque kick at the end of tactical races, that’s perhaps as close to Zoology as Cameron will get, as this First Year Catz BioNatSci bucks the CUHH trend and looks to go into BioChemistry next year.