After a successful weekend at BUCS, CUH&H headed down to Hyde Park to test their pace on the flat.
lThe ladies team (henceforth known as Longstaff Jousting Supplies ltd.) got off to a flying start, with the eponymous Rachel Longstaff being the first lady across the line. Emily Ruane then stormed round the course to further the lead and hand over to fresher Phoebe Barker. Putting in another stellar performance, Phoebe made the job of the final leg runner Niamh Bridson-Hubbard relatively straightforward, battling more with the wind than with any other competitors. Niamh brought the baton home for Longstaff Jousting Supplies Limited more than 5 minutes in front of the next ladies team, with CUHH claiming the four fastest legs of the day – an excellent sign of things to come for the rest of the season.
In the men’s race, CUH&H’s “Chonkosaurs” won the competition by virtue of consistency against the host Imperial side, with all six men running within less than minute of each other – a good showing from a depleted team post BUCS, especially given the relays coincided with cross-country league weekend. Pete Cameron took out the first leg and was not far off second and third to finish fourth in what was to be CUH&H’s fastest leg time of 15:59 (a dominant run by former Oxford runner Dan Mulryan took the first leg out for Imperial in 15:16 to also claim the fastest 5km time of the day). Jacob Brockmann ran 16:20 on the second leg to take Cambridge from fourth to second (barely a second behind Imperial in what was already shaping up to be a two horse race given third was 40 seconds behind at this stage), although Tom Goulding had to face Imperial’s second quickest runner on the third leg and as a result the deficit to Imperial to just over a minute after Tom’s 16:49 run. Matt Harris was next up and closed the gap to 43 seconds with exactly the same 5km time, and while Jose Gray’s 16:27 leg brought it further down to seven seconds. It was left to Su-Min Lee to take on the final leg, running the exact same time as Jose and Cambridge taking the win by 20 seconds.
Congratulations for a dominant showing from CUH&H, and a great (but windy) day trip to London.
Full results can be found here