Brunel Crowned 2013 Inter-Varsity Althetics Champions
Brunel Athletics Club recently faced the UK’s leading athletics universities – Bath, Birmingham, Loughborough and UWIC– in the annual Inter-Varsity Challenge at the NIA Birmingham, where they emerged victorious, taking the overall team title for the first time since 2008.
Multi-eventer and Sport Scholar Jo Rowland contested five events over the course of the afternoon. She won the shot putt with 12.44 metres and had third-place finishes in the ‘A’ 60-metre hurdles (8.97 secs), high jump (1.60 metres) and pole vault (2.95 metres). The MSc Sport Sciences student was a last-minute fill-in for the vault, but managed to achieve a personal best, which augurs well should she ever wish to tackle the decathlon. Rowland, who is coached by Ian Grant commented “I’m really proud of my performances today and we pulled together well as a team.” She capped her campaign with a 25.2-sec third leg in the 4 x 200-metre relay where she helped her teammates Shanice Harrison (25.7 secs), Krystal Galley (26.1 secs) and Aisha Naibe-Wey (24.7 secs) to a resounding win.
Also representing the Brunel women’s team was top-ranked Irish sprinter Leah Moore who won the ‘A’ 60-metres and shaved four hundredths of a second off her personal best in the process (7.63 secs). The Harry King-coached athlete also won the ‘B’ 200 metres with 24.93 secs. Joining Moore in the 200 metres was team debutante Shanice Harrison who took the spoils in the guest race with a swift 24.84 secs – a personal best. The imperturbable Harrison went on to finish second in the ‘B’ 60-metres with 7.77 secs. Notable performances were also recorded by Melissa Courtney in the 800 metres (2:09.25 PB), Zara Asante in the triple jump (12.06 metres), and Aisha Naibe-Wey who revelled in a win and personal best in the guest 400 metres (57.83 secs).
The men’s campaign was spearheaded by multi-eventer Ashley Bryant, now in his final year as a Sport Scholar and serving as men’s captain. The Ian Grant-coached athlete contested four individual events coming second in the shot putt (13.32 metres), first in his guest 60-metre dash (7.22 secs), and third in both the ‘A’ 60-metre hurdles (8.27 secs) and high jump (1.84 metres). There were some impressive performances in the men’s sprints with Sport Scholar Paul Scanlon coming second in the ‘A’ 400 metres (49.26 secs) and winning his guest 60 metres (7.12 secs).
Fellow speed merchant Tom Kennedy took second in the ‘A’ 60 metres (7.09 secs) and, quite remarkably, emerged onto the track a few minutes later to win a guest 60 metres (7.11 secs). Patrick Onu made a stylish team debut with a first-place finish in the ‘B’ 60-metres (7.16 secs) and a personal best in the ‘B’ 200 metres (22.84 secs), where he finished second. In the final event of the day, Brunel’s men enjoyed an emphatic win in the 4 x 200-metre relay (Alex Bell, 22.5 secs; Bryant, 21.7 secs; Scanlan, 22.6 secs; Onu, 22.3 secs). The team are now busy preparing for the BUCS Indoor Championships which take place at the EIS Sheffield from 22-24 February 2013.
