Saturday 9th February

Parkside Pools

Oxford emerged victorious at this year’s Varsity swimming gala, held at Parkside Pools last Saturday. The day began with a parade around the pool, spurred on by the deafening support of a particularly strong home crowd, and following a rendition of the national anthem, the gala got underway with the women’s 200m IM. All competitors were seemingly eager to get going as proceedings were interrupted for a false start, but after a smoother start second time round, Oxford’s Naomi Vides overtook Henny Dillon to take victory, her winning time of 2.22.91 a new Varsity record.

Cambridge’s Dale Waterhouse failed to push past Tom Booth in the corresponding men’s race, the Oxford man exacting revenge over his rival from their last meeting in Cambridge, when Dale just clinched the winning touch. Erica Meissner broke Oxford’s winning streak with a Cambridge and Varsity record time of 1.02.66, in the women’s 100m backstroke, finishing 2 seconds clear of her light blue compatriot Megan Connor, who set a personal best time of 1.04.40. This inspirational swim motivated Henny Dillon to overcome her earlier setback, out touching Oxford’s Hannah Johnston on the last stroke of the women’s 100m fly with a time of 1.06.0. Oxford’s Tristan Goodfellow responded with a time of 1.55.01 in the men’s 200m freestyle to beat Cambridge’s Andy Corley by a painful one hundredth of a second.

Oxford’s Lucy Spencer proved too strong for Kate Wallwork in the women’s 400m freestyle, her wealth of experience in the event helping her to overcome her rival in the last 50m by less than a tenth of a second. Oxford continued to win top placings in the last individual races of the day despite a personal best from Cambridge men’s captain Tom Hill, who’s superb swim in the 100m breaststroke wasn’t enough to beat Oxford’s Anthony O’Driscoll, a former member of the Bath performance programme.

Despite Oxford’s overall victory there were some brilliant individual swims for the Light Blues. Most races resulted in the swimmers setting personal bests, with four competitors the women and men’s teams fulfilling the requirements to gain full blue status. With such fine performances, the captains can finish their main swim cycle of the year with no regrets after a great day to finish an excellent season.