Medals in Manchester

Last weekend saw outstanding performances on track and field from two of Oxford’s leading athletes; Maranga Mokaya (Keble) and Michael Allison (St Anne’s) at the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester.

Maranga, who is studying for a DPhil at Keble College and whose last gasp finish at this year’s Varsity secured a memorable win for the Dark Blue Men, was competing in his favoured event, the 400m hurdles. Having broken the 400m Varsity record this year, Maranga has been competing in the Diamond League in the 400m hurdles and has sights set on Paris next year.

Last Saturday he finished strongly to secure a bronze medal at the Championships, going one better than last year with a credible time of 50.32 - his season best so far. This performance definitely points him in the right direction for Paris 2024 with his goal for this season to break the elusive 50 second mark.

On the field, freshman Michael Allison, still only 19, repeated the form that saw him win the England Athletics U20 & U23 Open Championships in Chelmsford last month, throwing 69.73m to take the silver medal in his first UK Senior Championships!

Amazingly this throw doesn’t rank in his top five of the season so far. Michael threw 76.97m to win in Chelmsford and threw 73.91m a week later at the DLV Junior Gala in Mannheim.

Oxford is fortunate to have these two athletes for at least the next two years and without pre-empting any later news this summer, both have been selected by the Vincent’s Awards Panel to receive significant funding and support on their journeys to the Olympics. More on this to follow.

Congratulations to both athletes on magnificent results and we’ll be following their progress through the summer.