Imperial Athletics dominate University of London Champs
Gareth Holden and Shiv Patel talk about their strong performance at the University of London Championships in Lee Valley.
On Sunday 23rd December, Imperial College Cross Country and Athletics club along with the ICSM (Imperial Medics) athletics club competed in the annual University of London championship at the Lee Valley Athletics centre. Having (somewhat unfairly) lost out to LSE last year in the battle for the top spot, our team was hungry for a chance to take back the championship, which has been won by Imperial for 10 out of the last 12 years.
It became apparent as the medals started pouring in that this was our year. By the end of the day we had racked up a massive 12 gold medals, 10 silvers and another 9 bronze to take the championships, pushing our arch-rivals LSE down to 3rd place and winning twice as many golds as 2nd place UCL!
Star performances in the field came from Stephanie Koumbas and Erik Tropp who won gold in the high jump with an all-Imperial podium in the men’s. George Cross led an ICSM dominated men’s shot put and Ines Kubler revealed her hidden strength to take gold for the women.
It was also the women who stole the show on track. Fresher Alex Mundell wowed the competition with two golds in the 400m and 800m, a sign of what we can expect over the next 6 years! Final year medic Sian Mitchell took gold in the 200m and 60m hurdles. However, the athlete of the day has to be Emma Watkins who could barely stand upright under the weight of her 5 medals, including a gold in long jump.
In a very tense men’s 60m final, Chris Chung managed to edge out James Roughneen and Sidney Chan to win gold and complete an impressive Imperial 1-2-3. Gareth Holden faced an inopportune fire alarm delaying the race start in the men’s 400m but managed to take home the silver medal. This, of course, led to the inevitable fire alarm selfies and a certain photo of one Movember participant (who shall remain nameless) that will surely not be forgotten. In the much anticipated relays, the Imperial women’s team and the men’s 1st team claimed the silver medals, both narrowly missing out on gold.
Of course, no athletics event would be complete without the standard club curry to round off a good day of UCL-bashing. The real competition of who could brave the vindaloo was won by James Roughneen who didn’t even break a sweat (almost). The trophy proved to be the perfect vessel for toasting our success and ensuring sufficient levels of merriment all round. The last leg of the day (pun intended) involved a trip to Be at One, Hammersmith where two for one cocktails went down very well. This rounded off what was a spectacular day for Imperial Athletics and a fantastic team performance to mark record levels of participation! It’s not too late to get involved in ICXCA, there will be many more events in the new year. Email run@ic.ac.uk or find us on Facebook.
