LONDON VARSITY 2022- Athletics Review

Brilliant sunshine welcomed the athletes at the Parliament Hill Fields Athletics Track on Thursday morning. Spirits were high, and only got higher as the day progressed, as victories started pouring in for the King’s Athletics team. King’s was dominant throughout the day and defeated UCL 76-54 (first place is worth 4 points, second place is worth 2, and third place is worth 1), winning 12 of the 20 events.

The KCL team started strong with victories in 100m sprint and triple jump for both the lads and the ladies. Aino (3rd year History) won in triple jump and high jump, and came second in long jump. As it turned out, despite her success in the former two, she wasn’t even supposed to compete in them originally. “Long jump is my main event. When I last trained high jump and triple jump, I was a kid. On Tuesday in training, we did high jumps a couple times, which was the first time I practiced them in many years. And I didn’t even practice triple jumps in training, so I did that completely blind today. But it went okay”, she said, laughing.

The King’s team were victors in the 200m and the 400m as well. 400m winner Giuseppe (Global Affairs masters) thought that it was a good race for a season opener (he also finished on the podium in the 200m race). “It’s still very early on the season, but it feels alright. I know what I need to work on for the proper races, so I’m happy.” He usually does 12-15 races a year and trains for them 6 times a week. Despite this extreme commitment to running, he isn’t planning to be a professional athlete. “In my eyes, this is the last year I am able to do athletics the way I want to do it, so I’m trying to run as much as possible. And hopefully I will get a personal best later this season, so I can finish on a high”, he told Roar News.

Darius (1st year Politics and Philosophy) came first in the 800m race despite returning from injury. Although, he wasn’t particularly satisfied with his time, he was happy with his first Varsity victory. The race also helped him prepare for the cross-country season, he told Roar. “I would definitelyrecommend joining cross-country. Not just to keep fit, but also because of the very good sense of community.”

Sean (3rd year History and French), the vice president of the King’s Athletics & Cross-Country Club finished second in the same race, extraordinarily while competing in high jump. He ran the two laps around the track between two of his jumps, as his fellow high jumpers cheered on. However, he didn’t find this challenge very difficult. “No, it wasn’t particularly hard with all the support I received today. All the cheers. Amazing turnout today, and the weather is definitely a positive.”

The last event of the day was long jump, and King’s was able to celebrate victory in both the men’s and women’s event once again. After winning the triple jump in the morning, Yaniv (3rd year Business Management) secured victory in long jump as well. As the president of the Athletics Club, he was very satisfied with the team’s performance. “It was a solid performance, everyone did really good. We had a really good turnout as well. We got the win by over 20 points ahead of UCL, so I’m really happy with the performance. We won in 2020 as well, so getting the win this year again seems like a good pattern. As the club president, I’m very happy.”

Results:

KCL victories: 100m (men’s and women’s); 200m (m); 400m (m); 800m (m, w); 1500m (w); high jump (w); triple jump (m, w); long jump (m, w).

UCL victories: 200m (w); 400m (w); 1500m (m); 5000m (m, w); 4x100m relay; medley relay; high jump (m).