The best gymnasts of Oxbridge showed the results of their intense training in the last year by competing in the Marriotts Gym, Stevenage last weekend. Cambridge entered one men's team who completely outshone Oxford on every event and one women's team who despite a very unfortunate injury of Madeline Mithchell the day before put up a good fight and only narrowly lost to the Dark Blues.

The girls were first up on vault which proved to be a strong event for Cambridge as Kate Bramall took the individual bronze and Nikhol Hui brought home the silver with good execution of difficult elements. Next up on uneven bars Nikhol showed a very clean and nicely flowing routine which secured her yet another silver medal.

Cambridge newcommer Sarah Morreau was just a few tenths of points behind. Oxford managed to gain most point advantage on beam with solid landings and high difficulty as Light Blues suffered several falls and form deductions. Nevertheless, floor as the last event was a great comeback as Nikhol Hui was the indisputable winner ahead of Stephanie Bailey, both of whom won the judges over by the variety of elegant dance, leaps and strong tumbling. The final score of both teams was 173.95 for Oxford and 167.10 for Cambridge. Nikhol Hui tied with Oxford's Amy Morreau for the individual gold.

Men's competition was dominated by the Light Blues with a team of 6 consistent and highly motivated gymnasts who were aiming to bag the third team victory in a row. Starting their match on the floor with several minor slips at difficult tumbling moves Oxford were still a good match and took the individual victory as Cambridge captain Edgar Engel placed second and Seb Barfoot came third.

 The pommel horse revealed that Oxford team was heavily relying on two or three experienced individuals as Cambridge gained an advantage of nearly 20 points and top scores by Alex Appleton, Tom Bachmann and Edgar Engel. The latter two proved their abilities on rings by flawlessly performing elements that require both physical and mental strength, again gaining around 15 points over the Dark Blues.

Vault was known to be the best event of Seb Barfoot who impressed everyone by a clean straight tsukahara and snatching the gold but a special mention goes to Christian Vaquero for great effort despite the lack of training.  The road to success continued on paralell bars and finished on the high bar with Cambridge scoring significantly higher for each routine. Edgar Engel took two silver medals and Tom Bachmann came third in both events. The victory of Light Blues was well-deserved as they scored 317.3 points, staggering 75 points ahead of Oxford. Edgar Engel and Seb Barfoot placed second and third overall in the individual battle followed by Jolyon Winter who had a fantastic competition proving that hard work paid off, resulting in a remarkable progress from his first Varsity match in 2009.

Hopes for next year's match are even higher as the club is aiming to recruit new talented hopefuls to replace the leaving team members and take home both team trophies.

For more photos of the gymnasts in action, please click here