Bowden and Olley take first in season opener at Parliament Hill

On 18/10/2017, UCL hosted the first LUCA cross-country race of the 2017/18 season. The weather was slightly damp, but refreshing and without rain, with the course not being as muddy as it may have been considering the recent stormy weather. The course was changed from previous years, having a shorter lap distance but with women completing 2 laps and men completing 3 (instead of 1 & 2). There were a fantastic 259 runners participating, with 146 men and 113 women. This led to a total of 58 teams, 29 in the men’s race and 29 in the women’s. Hopefully these numbers can continue throughout the season!

All results listed here.

The women’s race was won Phillipa Bowden of Brunel, finishing in a time of 21:40, with Sarah Johnson of Imperial and Typhaine Christiaen of LSE finishing second and third respectively. Chris Olley of Imperial won the men’s race with a time of 28:56, followed by Patrick Roddy and Thomas Butler of UCL and Saint Mary’s coming close behind. In terms of team standings, Brunel A lead the men’s table with 700 points, just 3 more than Imperial A. In the women’s teams, Imperial A lead with 378 points, 11 ahead of UCL A, although there is still much to play for in the next 4 races!

Of course, this race brought about the use of the new ‘code system’, and while there were still queues handing in finishing tokens, the system coped well with the huge numbers of runners, despite still being refined. If you have any suggestions for improvement, please contact James Findon. A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped with the race, without them we wouldn’t be able to race.

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