Written by Christian Pugsley
Fresh after watching Josh Kerr storm to a new WR in the mile, I was reminded of the sheer number of records achieved by LUCA athletes this year, in what was a momentous 10th anniversary year for LUCA. We saw 7 new records set at LUCA Indoors, a further 3 at the LUCA Outdoor Open (including 2 in the inaugural mixed relay events) and then 7 more records set at LUCA Outdoors, which returned to where it all began in 2014 at Tooting Bec. LUCA has come a long way since that first event, and it was fitting to host the biggest (with record-breaking entries), most well attended and possibly the most exciting Outdoors yet back at that same track, with the top 3 clubs separated by just 2 points.
We saw records in the women’s 100mH, with Sofia Innocenti of UAL just beating previous record holder Issy Walton to the line in 15.20s. The women’s long jump saw Amber Brown of RHUL add an outdoor record of 5.89m to her indoor record, as did Olivia Dobson of Brunel who demolished the previous shot record with a new best of 13.61m. Georgia Tombs of QMUL broke the women’s 400m record in 56.44s, and Harvey Weinberger was able to break the men’s 800m in heat 2 in an impressive solo run, lowering the previous mark by just over 3 seconds to 1:54.17. In the men’s pole vault, Prithvi Sharma of Reading triumphed in what turned out to be the deciding event of the day, with a new record of 3m.
In the LUCA competition, Imperial took an early lead after multiple successes in the longer races. It took until the very end of the day for reigning champions, KCL, to make their comeback, with UCL hot on their heels. KCL were looking to make this 4 Outdoor wins in a row, having won this year’s Indoor Championships for the 5th year running. Imperial’s last and only win in the Outdoor Championship was in 2021, and UCL had not won since the 2018/19 season (a year dear to my heart, as I was president of UCL that year). It really did come down to the wire, with everything riding on the pole vault, the last event of the day. The two UCL jumpers were able to do just enough to put UCL one single point ahead of KCL, with Imperial one point behind them, making this the closest championships we have ever hosted. (The astute amongst you may recall a similar scenario in 2023 at the Indoor Championships, however the scoring system for Outdoors means that it is far more unlikely to be within single points of each other than at Indoors).
The MVP was also closely contested, but KCL athlete (who later won the LUCA female Athlete of the Year) Lateefah Agberemi saw off Prithvi Sharma of Reading to win her second Outdoor MVP. She also won the ‘MoVP’ indoors this year, and has previously won this twice, meaning she has now been crowned MVP at 5 different championships. Adding to her win at BUCS in the women’s triple jump, she has had a phenomenal year.
There were multiple other PBs set throughout the day, and the ‘New PB’ sign was in heavy rotation amongst the medal winners. I was informed by Imperial that almost all of their athletes achieved a PB on the day, an impressive feat and hopefully a sign of good conditions despite the heat.
Speaking of the heat, I must extend a huge thanks to all that helped out on the day. Our amazing officials, who often had no shade at all, especially those in the field (led by Alastar Phelan) did an outstanding job. It was great to see so many LUCA members officiating, many for the first time, and making up almost 50% of the qualified officials on the day. I also must thank the LUCA volunteers (AKA the orange army), who helped everything run smoothly. If you fancy yourself a LUCA-branded orange T-shirt, please volunteer, it’ll be yours to keep. The athletics organising committee worked tirelessly behind the scenes to put the event on. Thank you to Jamie Brown, Nadja Schmidbauer, Pierre Walker, Chine Okereke, Alastar Phelan, George Buckner and of course James Findon for all your help! Lastly, LUCA photographer Janek took some great snaps – see here.
An evening of awards and celebration followed, and with it an opportunity to recognise those faces who have contributed the most to university athletics this year, and the chance to thank all those who keep this organisation thriving. We are now busy behind the scenes to make the next year even bigger and better, and working towards achieving Vision 2030. Here’s to the next 10 years of LUCA, we’ll see you in September. Have a wonderful summer and enjoy the Commies/Europeans!