MODERN PENTATHLON - Varsity Match Report 2011
Saturday 9 April 2011
The 2011 Modern Pentathlon Competition was held at Bradfield School, Reading on the 8th and 9th April.
There were high hopes for this years Varsity Match as the Cambridge women saw a strong team of experienced competitors returning and the Men’s team fielded a relatively new but highly promising team set on breaking the Oxford Men’s 14 year winning streak. The competition started well with both the Cambridge Women and Men dominating the fence and Cambridge’s Laura Plant winning the Ladies Fence. That evening also saw a fantastic Cambridge effort in the swim with Henrietta Dillon setting a new Varsity Women’s Record with a 200m time of 2 minutes 8s and Men’s Captain Brad Dixon missing out on setting the Men’s Record by 0.5s. A notable performance was seen by new-recruit Ed Tusting who achieved a time 42 seconds faster than his time at the start of the season. At the end of the first day, Cambridge Women had a strong lead and the Oxford men were only 14 points ahead- a promising start.
However, the second day of the competition did not fall in Cambridge’s favour. Several of the weaker Oxford competitors drew capable horses and achieved high ride scores meaning the Oxford Men pulled further head and the Cambridge Women fell behind.
Despite strong combined event performances from many athletes including the best Women’s shoot by Zoe Rutterford, the Oxford lead in both competitions was too strong and left Cambridge pledging to win back both trophies in the 2012 Varsity match.
Some comfort was found with the fantastic performance of GB pentathlete Tom Barber who set a new Men’s Varsity record with his total score over the 5 disciplines and easily won the Men’s individual title. The women’s reserve team beat Oxford convincingly with Cambridge’s Anna Wilson taking the Women’s Reserve’s title.
The high standard of the competitors was demonstrated by all 6 of the Men’s team receiving Blues or Half Blues and, with 5 out of the 6 Men remaining next year and some talented reserves, finally breaking Oxford’s winning streak looks set to be a real possibility next year.
Men’s Result
Oxford: 29652 Cambridge: 28616
Women’s Result
Oxford: 24008 Cambridge: 23132
Men’s Champion
Tom Barber (Cambridge)
Women’s Champion
Clare Kane (Oxford)
