Fit, fast Freshers on fire at Fun Run

Fresh legs keep up the pace in a sunny Freshers’ Fun Run, reports Polly Keen

Robin Brown (41) leads the way at the start of the men's race, closely followed by 2nd place finisher Lewis Lloyd (49)Polly Keen

by Polly Keen

Monday October 15 2012, 2:00pm

An abundance of exceptional running talent amongst this year’s intake was revealed in the 2012 Freshers’ Fun Run. The sun shone as the athletes laced up their shoes for this annual race around the West Cambridge Site starting and finishing at the athletics track.

Ladies first: and two fresher girls crossed the line in first and second places in the approximately 2.7 km women’s race. Alison Greggor (a new graduate student at King’s) showed impressive credentials as she took the victory in 8 minutes 58 seconds, ahead of undergraduate Fresher Katherine Turner (Magdalene). Though guest runner Gemma Coe finished third, Ariane Nikpur of Lucy Cavendish was the third finishing Fresher (fifth overall).

The roughly-5km men’s race saw a great battle of novice versus experience. Last year’s victor Robin Brown (fifth year medic, Jesus), kept pace with two 2012 school leavers – Alex Short (Robinson) and Lewis Lloyd (Pembroke). This exciting contention resulted in Short pulling away to take the victory in 14 minutes 51 seconds, with fellow Fresher Lloyd finishing 10 seconds behind and just pipping Brown to the line. Third placed Fresher was Oklahoma State graduate Mark Nelson, now at Pembroke, who came in at eighth overall.

In the inter-college competition, the winning men’s team was Churchill, while Corpus Christi finished on top for the ladies.

There isn’t long to wait until the next College League race on 20thOctober: the Fen Ditton Dash. The races here are longer and the terrain tougher, so it’ll be exciting to see whether the Freshers can go the distance.

The races are open to everyone, so why not come and join in the running? See www.cuhh.org.uk for more details.

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