Gold for Harriet Scott in BUCS Indoor Athletics Championships

Athletes from both Imperial College Athletics Club and ICSM Athletics Club travelled up to Sheffield on the weekend of 18-20 February for the BUCS Indoor Athletics Championships. Competing across a wide range of both track and field events, the team were looking forward to an exciting weekend of sport.

Starting the day early on Saturday morning were the 60m sprint events, which saw Pavidra Sivanandarajah competing in the women’s category and Ewan Mackay and Adam Jones competing in the men’s.

Following the sprints, Aaron Mason ran well in an event he is not accustomed to, the 800m, and managed to run a new PB of 2:03.94. In addition, Jonathan Mann, normally a 400m hurdler, competed in the 400m race and managed a respectable 54.74s, which should set a good benchmark for the rest of the season. Seethalakshmi Muthalagappan also competed in the women’s 400m and ran a brave race.

While the events on track were taking place, Chris Jones competed in the High Jump, and achieved a decent height of 1.65m.

Towards the end of the afternoon Harriet Scott, Imperial’s only long distance runner of the weekend, took to the track in the 3000m women’s heats. Harriet had intended to compete in both the 1500m and 3000m, but due to a nonsensical timetabling decision, they were scheduled back-to-back with no rest in between; so Harriet decided to put all her efforts into the 3000m. Running confidently, but not so quickly as to tire her out for the finals the following day, Harriet qualified easily at the head of her heat.

Last of the events on the Saturday were the 4x200m relays, which the Imperial Men’s team were greatly looking forward to. Getting off to a good start, Adam Jones put Imperial into a decent position, and with a nail-biting changeover to Jonathan Mann which was only inches away from the outside of the changeover box, Jonathan was in a good position coming into the break. Running hard, he was able to maintain position and pass the baton swiftly to Imperial’s next runner, Ewan Mackay. Ewan ran well and when the time came to pass to Aaron Mason on the last leg, there were only a few teams in front. As Aaron received the baton, one of the runners up ahead who had just finished his part of the race was slowly jogging in lane 1, rather than exiting the track as quickly as possible. Aaron, a veteran of 4x400m running, wasted no time going around the obstruction and instead dipped his shoulder and drove through him, knocking the other athlete clear of the track! Aaron continued to run in the same determined fashion and finished the race well for Imperial. Though the team were disappointed with the final time they were given; 1:37.23, they certainly enjoyed the race!

The events on Sunday kicked off with the 200m sprints which saw Muzzaffar Zaiviji Ismail compete in the men’s event and Pavidra Sivanandarajah in the women’s. Both athletes ran well given the type of training they have been doing over the winter.

All eyes were then focussed on the women’s 3000m final. Harriet started the race strongly, not wanting to fall behind any break-away groups. Staying near the front of the pack for several laps, Harriet and another athlete began to pull away from the main group and Harriet really started to show her quality. With only a few laps remaining, Harriet started to drive, over-taking the athlete by her side; nobody could live with her pace. Harriet stormed home to win the race in a great time of 9:20.53!

Rounding off the day for Imperial was Samzu Agbaje who competed in the men’s 60m sprint hurdles. Running very well against stiff competition, Samzu managed a respectable 8.90s.

With one gold medal and lots of great memories, the Imperial team left Sheffield in a great mood - eager for the University of London Championships on 20 March.