Pushing the speed after Friday’s 5km win, the University of Sheffield dominated the indoor athletics varsity in a sweeping win against Hallam.
Both teams travelled late Monday afternoon to Sheffield’s England Institute of Sport to prepare for the night’s events, with competitors remarking they were happy to see a bigger turnout of athletes and supporters than the previous year.
After taking 3 of 4 available points on Monday’s events, Sheffield’s athletics team can claim a steep 6-2 win against Hallam this year. The women’s and men’s track events were both won by the University of Sheffield, as were the men’s field events, though Hallam’s women put up a fight in the field events to win their heat.
Hallam nonetheless started strong, with Hayley Dimond taking her first of two wins in the women’s 60m hurdles with a time of 9.05s, and Kaspars Kazemarks taking the men’s heat by storm in 8.48s.
Tensions rose as Sheffield began collecting points, with a close win in the men’s 600m for Sheffield’s Thomas Abbott in 1:25.79. Catherine Reynolds also took her heat for Sheffield in 1:38.49, beating the venue’s record of 1:52.85.
Sheffield men’s 3000m winner George O’Connor said: “It was domination really. From what I saw, I barely saw us lose an event. Proud of everyone, everyone gave it their all.”
George O’Connor:
Hallam’s Rosie Hickling scraped her 60m win with a personal best time of 7.72s against Sheffield’s Lyunade Tugbobo and her personal best time of 7.75s.
Rosie Hickling’s 60m winning race:
Field events were rolling between track events, and some athletes took the chance to try out field events for the first time.
Triple jump was won by Ellie Hepple with her distance of 10.49m for Sheffield, though Beckie Cray gained the university a point in 4th with 7.70m after attempting triple jump for the first time.
Pole jump resulted in a tense tie between Sheffield’s Charlotte Prince and Hallam’s Bethany Falcon in a height of 3.10m.
Shot put saw both first-place winners put personal bests under their belts, two among many personal and venue bests beaten. In Dimond’s second win of the night, she gained a new best of 12.78m, and Sheffield’s Alastair Brown smashed both his own personal best and the venue’s record of 15.08m with 15.78m.
Sheffield proudly closed the night with a double win in both the 4x200m and 4x400m mixed relays, with times of 1:38.17 and 3:51.05, respectively.
Mixed relays podium:
Club President for Sheffield Hallam Athletics Club, Harry Barker, commented that, despite their smaller club, he was proud of the performance his team gave amidst training for their upcoming races.
He said: “Uni of are looking like they’re gonna win the night, which is a bit disappointing, but everyone’s come out, everyone’s given it their all, which is all you can ask for.”
