Our women’s team leads Brunel to victory in the annual indoor athletics challenge.
Our Athletics Club recently faced the UK's top athletics universities – Loughborough, Bath, Birmingham and Cardiff Metropolitan – in the annual indoor Inter-Varsity Challenge at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre in North London.
The women's team emerged victorious with 108 points while the men's team finished third with 113 points. Nonetheless, the Brunelians claimed overall victory through women's and men's scores combined.
The women's team led by captain, Emma Nwofor, was particularly strong on this occasion, finishing 22 points ahead of the University of Birmingham.
The triumphant women's team enjoyed early wins from Teska Annika ('A' high jump, 1.70 m) and Janet Browne ('B' high jump, 1.65 m). Also in winning form was debutante Izzy Bryant who took the spoils in the 'B' 200 metres with an indoor personal best of 25.82 secs.
Sports Scholar and Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences student, Emma Nwofor, fresh from her international pentathlon success in Madrid the previous weekend, came second in the 'A' shot put with 11.49 m. Similarly, debutante Finlay Marriott came second in the 'A' 60-metre hurdles with 8.88 secs. Other notable performances on the track included Modupe Shokunbi's second-place finish in the 'A' 60-metre dash (7.76 secs) and Darcey Kuyper's second in the 'B' string of the same event (7.81 secs). In the field, debutante Simone Ager came second in the 'A' long jump (5.13 m) while Sarah Melbourne was also second in the 'A' triple jump (10.69 m).
One of the most impressive doubles of the meeting came courtesy of second-year Business and Management student, Luke Dorrell, who won the 'B' 200 metres in a faster time than the 'A' race winner – 22.05 secs, an indoor personal best.
He went on to achieve the same feat in the 60-metre dash 'B' race with 6.86 secs. The 'A' 200 metres was taken comfortably by Marvin Popoola (pictured) in 22.15 secs, an indoor PB.
Elsewhere on the men's team, Sports Scholar Kai Jones started the 2018 season where he left off in 2017, with a comfortable win in the shot put (15.06 m). Joining Jones in the shot was fellow Sports Scholar Thomas Head who took the 'B' string with 13.46 m. In the high jump, debutant Mityrae Francis Brooks won the 'A' string with 1.96 m and Sports Scholar Jake Storey took the 'B', having cleared the same height.
One of the outstanding men's performances was posted by Reece Young, who entered the 60- metre hurdles as a guest competitor, and won it with 8.20 secs. Men's captain, Tom Chandler, came second in the 'A' long jump with a respectable leap of 6.49 m.
Our Brunel athletes are now busy preparing for the BUCS Indoor Athletics Championships in Sheffield from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 February.