Month: April 2018

News

King’s of the Valley: results and records update

April 29, 2018 James Findon

King’s extended their lead to 92 points at the second meet of the outdoor series. The multi event challenge was won by Juliette Champaud (UCL) and Noel Rimensberger (Imperial), who picked up a new championship record of 2186. Kerstin Pohlmann (KCL) moves up to first place in the MVP ranking, just ahead of Alex Mundell (ICL) and Juliette Champaud (UCL). Other notable individual performances include Keano-Elliott Paris-Samuel (SMU) new championship record of 22.19 and Hugo Fleming’s (UCL) new championship record in the 800 of 01:58.81. There were also two new records set in […]

News

Outdoor Series Meet 2: Preview

April 27, 2018 James Findon

King’s go into the meet 61 points up but will be weary of a strong UCL team. Over 150 athletes will head to Lee Valley tomorrow to compete in the second meet of the LUCA Outdoor Series. At Parliament Hill, King’s opened a healthy 61 point gap, but they will be all to aware that strong starts don’t always mean strong finishes. It was at Lee Valley two years ago where Essex Blades started the day 41 points ahead of UCL and King’s, who were tied for points. UCL narrowed […]

News

ICXCAC at De Batavierenrace

April 25, 2018 Duncan Hunter

Its back and Bata than ever, another one of ICXCAC’s many, high quality trips. For the first time, we’ve taken a full team of 25 to what has been described in previous years as “the best trip I’ve been on with Cross Country” and “the daddy of all road relays”; a description that matches the experiences of this year, the 46th (and Imperial’s 4th) Batavierenrace. The race, a gargantuan 175 km, split into 25 legs, is the largest student relay race in the world, running through the night and into […]

News

The Battle of the Hill – LUCA Outdoor Series Meet 1 Report

April 25, 2018 James Findon

King’s top the Outdoor Series Championship after the first meet at Parliament Hill. The fourth annual LUCA Outdoor Series got underway on a mild April Sunday in Highgate. The original fixture had been postponed due to snow, but conditions were almost perfect for the start of the outdoor season. The event started with the traditional 10,000m championship, won by Ula Krajinska (KCL) and Philip Coales (UCL). Then, onto the short hurdles and 1500m. UCL took 1st place in both the 100 and 110 hurdles with wins for Juliette Champaud and Joshua Hia. Imperial enjoyed […]

Inspire

Two marathons in two weather extremes in one week

April 24, 2018 James Findon

By Richard Sun, PhD student, QMUL. I love running and sometimes I have crazy idea, such as to do back-to-back marathons, and the two marathons are two of the bests in the world, Boston and London. Throwback to April of last year, I did my first sub-3 hours marathon in Manchester and qualified for Boston and London (Good for Age). Though there is only a 6-day gap between the two marathons, I signed up both because I couldn’t wait. The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon which begun […]

Inspire

Students shine in hottest London Marathon on record

April 23, 2018 James Findon

On a sweltering day in London, fifteen students and alumni from LUCA clubs lined up for the 38th London Marathon. One of these runners was Rob Pope, a former student of the Royal Veterinary College. Pope ran this year’s London Marathon dressed as Tom Hanks’ Oscar-winning character, Forest Gump, in 2 hours, 36 minutes and 28 seconds. His achievement earned him a Guinness World Record for the fastest male marathon runner in a film character costume. This wasn’t the first time Pope has run dressed as Gump, as we’ve previously reported here. There was also […]

News

Marking 50 years since the GPO Tower Race

April 18, 2018 James Findon

Tower running is celebrating its 50th anniversary in the UK this year, with the first recorded stair race having taken place in April 1968 at London’s GPO Tower (now BT Tower). Students from the University of London competed against the University of Edinburgh in a time trial format race up the 798 steps. Edinburgh came out on top. The tower had been commissioned by the General Post Office to support microwave aerials carrying telecommunications transmissions from London to the rest of the country.  Work began in June 1961 and was […]

News

Records tumble as King’s grab an early lead

April 15, 2018 James Findon

Preliminary results put King’s College in a 61 point advantage over second place UCL. Seven championship records were broken at the first meet of the 2018 series. Preliminary results are available to download here. A full race report will follow. LUCA Outdoor Series Team Standings Position Club Stage 1 1 King’s 239 2 UCL 178 3 Imperial 110 4 LSE 60 5 UEL 38 6 RVC 29 7 SMU 19 8 Goldsmiths 11 9 Barts 9 10 RHUL 7 LUCA MVP Standings Position Name Club Points 1 Joshua Hia UCL […]

Commonwealth games

England comes good in the Commonwealth games athletics

April 14, 2018 Daniel Woodburn

The final three days of athletics at the 21st Commonwealth games lived up to the standards of the first four, culminating in the curtain-drawing relay events which offered a measure of vindication for England – and boy was vindication needed. On Thursday, team England picked up where it had left off the day before, both delivering excellent results and frustration in abundance. England’s second athletics gold finally came courtesy of Sophie Hahn – the ‘pocket rocket’ – who won her T38 100m final in a time a mere two milliseconds […]

News

In praise of cross-country

April 13, 2018 admin

Parliament Hill Fields, NW3, 18th of October 2017, 3:15. For the passing dog walkers, it must have been a strange sight for a Wednesday afternoon; north of 250 students clad in their new vests, clustering together at the base of ‘The Hill’. Some were old timers, others freshers in their first weeks of university life, but all were united in one purpose. Formerly the London Colleges League, the newly christened LUCA XC was about to kick off another season, with the infamous Parli Hill playing host to the opening salvoes […]