Varsity 2026

The Varsity Match 2026 was a return to glory for many of the Oxford squads and an overall impressive match for many of our athletes and the community of the club as well. We thank everyone who contributed to this success and anyone who came along to support at home. The following article was written by Charles Preswich, one of our own, for The Oxford Student and was graciously allowed to be featured here as well.

On May 23^rd, Iffley Road played host to this year’s Varsity athletics match. The track, which was newly resurfaced last summer, was ‘opened’ by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey in the morning. Each event saw two Oxford athletes go head-to-head against a brace of Cambridge athletes, with five points awarded to the winner, three points to second, two points to third and one point to fourth place; a points system aiming to reward the winning university in each event. Each university entered a pair of two-person teams per event (the main Blues team and a IIs team), meaning that there were four team trophies on offer (men’s and women’s Blues, men’s and women’s IIs), as well as the para-match, which saw 100m, 400m and 800m races take place.

By the time the first event (the non-scoring ‘open’ mile) got underway soon after 10.30am, it was already well over 20 degrees. Heat played a factor throughout the day, with the sun beating down heavily. This made the performances all the more impressive, starting with young GB athlete Rebecca Flaherty, who under the midday sun broke the Varsity 5000m record in a time of 16 minutes 5 seconds (in a race where the heat wreaked notable havoc). She lapped both of the Cambridge athletes along the way. By this point, we had already seen a Varsity record in the men’s Blues high jump, as Oxford’s Tom Blackburn cleared 1m 95, a 10cm PB.

Tom Barrett had won both the 2024 and 2025 Blues 800m, but this year was on the IIs team. He led the quartet out and was ahead for most of the race but lost out to Cambridge’s George Warren at the end. In the men’s Blues 800, Jack Organ was heavy favourite and had not hidden in the lead-up to the race that he was targeting the Varsity record of 1:48.5. The athlete who missed last year’s Varsity match because he was competing for GB led from gun to tape, running most of the second lap completely on his own, and came away with a time of 1:49.08, extremely close to the record. Despite missing it, this was a fantastic solo effort from the second-year undergraduate student, who will hopefully have next year’s event to have another crack at the record. Oxford’s Christian Cotchobos came in behind with a very impressive 1:50.81, agonisingly close to his PB, which he set in 2019 when he was 21 years old. He will be confident that his 28-year old self will better his 2019 mark at some point this summer.

In the women’s 800m, there was another Oxford win, for Athena Tharenos (2:25.00) before Oxford University Athletics Club President, Ella Fryer, dominated the women’s Blues 800 in an impressive time of 2:09.71, despite having struggled with injury for much of this year.

By the time the relays came around to draw proceedings to a close, three matches had already been wrapped up in Oxford’s favour, but the men’s Blues match hung in the balance.

The mile races saw further Oxford success. The men’s IIs was dominated by the athletes in dark blue, who, after a measured start, flew away from the Cambridge athletes with a lap to go and enjoyed their own race down the home straight. Freddie Cushing took the win from Charles Prestwich after a sub-60 second final lap. The men’s Blues was also won by Oxford, as Alex Gruen, who ran a 4:02 mile at Bannister Miles a few weeks ago, was expertly paced round by the other Oxford athlete, Harry Wilson – as had been planned pre-race – before hitting the front and racing away in the last 800. On the women’s side, Rebecca Flaherty returned to take a second win of the day, whilst there was an Oxford 1-2 in the IIs, Sophie Glencross winning from Tamsin Sangster.

In the sprint events, Natalie Groves put in a huge shift, winning both the Blues 200m and the Blues 400m, as well as competing in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relays (Four gold medals out of four). Fresher Alyssa Firla also had a successful day, with 2^nd place in the Blues 200m and a win in the Blues 100m (time of 12.90).

Away from the track, there were Oxford wins in both Blues and IIs men’s javelin, courtesy of Samson Brichieri-Colombi and Henry Henderson, and wins in the women’s Blues long jump and triple jump thanks to Alicia Wells and incoming OUAC President Laura Anene.

By the time the relays came around to draw proceedings to a close, three matches had already been wrapped up in Oxford’s favour, but the men’s Blues match hung in the balance. The team took a slightly unexpected win in the 4 x 100m after a thrilling race won by around 0.6 seconds. The 4 x 400m brought the curtain down on the event, and the track-side support was fantastic, with athletes no longer needing to hold back on the shouting and the jumping around in order to save energy for events later in the day. Jack Organ was on the final leg and inherited the baton with a small lead from Cambridge’s Sol Inglis, who had beaten Jack earlier on in the Blues 400m. Jack stretched out the gap down the back straight but Sol closed on the top bend and looked to have the momentum coming round to the home straight. In a gripping final 100m, Jack held off the Cambridge athlete by 0.12 seconds to secure the win the men’s Blues match for Oxford, after a phenomenal triple shift (800, 400, 4×400).

Oxford therefore wiped the floor with four wins out of four. Cambridge’s only consolation was victory in the para match, in no small part due to the fact that Oxford did not have an athlete entered in the wheelchair 400m, nor the wheelchair 800m. Celebrations were had at the steeplechase water jump, a fine way to cap off a successful day in the heat. A win of this nature at Varsity does not happen by accident, and all those on the OUAC Committee are owed special thanks for their commitment throughout the year. Many are unsung heroes, such as Jack Johnson who, powered by energy drinks, spent the entire night pre-Varsity making sure that the event would run smoothly, and baking a number of goodies which he says are very useful in keeping happy the volunteers who help to run the event. Bring on Varsity 2027!