Six Dark Blue athletes going for Commonwealth gold

24 July 2014

The Commonwealth Games begins today and six Oxford University athletes, past and present, are preparing to compete.

Rugby player Tom Mitchell, who won a Blue in Oxford’s 2011 Varsity win, will play for England in the Sevens tournament. Luke Caldwell, who graduated in 2012, will take part in the 5000m and 10000m for Scotland.

Daniel Hooker, who was Oxford University Athletics Club’s Men’s Captain in 2013, is representing England in the T37 100m. Ben Moreau will run in the marathon for England and Dan Fox will represent England in the hockey.

The first day of the Games has already seen success for an Oxford athletes as James Jurkiewicz won his heat in the 100m backstroke. James will swim in the semi-final live on the BBC this evening and, if this goes to plan, he will appear in the final tomorrow.

Before the race James, who only graduated this summer, said: ‘Balancing training and work this term has been pretty tough, as I have had my finals. I’ve just been getting up early and training every morning, and then working all day and training again after dinner. It actually helped me to structure my time.'

Oxford University's Sports Federation are running a live blog with updates on the results of our athletes and information on when each event takes place: http://www.sport.ox.ac.uk/students-alumni-set-compete-glasgow-commonwealth-games/

For more information contact Matt Pickles on 01865 280532 or [email protected]