Seniors
OCAC welcomes senior athletes looking for an opportunity to train and compete in a variety of athletic disciplines. There is information about coaching, training, and competing elsewhere on this site. The club was founded in 1946 as a club for senior men, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s was among the strongest athletics clubs in the UK. In the 1970s the club merged with Oxford Ladies, and a junior section was added. But we have always had a strong presence in senior athletics, and for many years have held a prominent position in senior road running, cross country and track athletics in the South of England. In the past twenty years the club has produced two Olympians, Hannah England and Nathan Douglas, and continues to produce top flight juniors, many of whom continue with the club as seniors.
For all Senior Members of the club, membership includes the cost of your England Athletics Affiliation fee. The club will register you with England Athletics, which will then enable you to enter all EA accredited competitions. With your EA Membership number you will be eligible for discounts for certain road and other running events.
All Senior Members are encouraged to compete in club teams – in the the Southern Athletics League and the Southern Counties Veteran Athletics League (over 35s). Senior endurance runners can also compete in club teams in local, regional and national road running and cross-country competitions.
The Southern Athletics League is a league open to clubs in the South of England, with teams drawn from as far afield as Plymouth in the west, Maidstone in the East and Norwich to the north-east of London. The majority of clubs are from the Home Counties but all southern counties are represented – Dorset, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is made up of 6 divisions at present, and is still growing. The league offers 5 matches each summer for combined men’s and women’s teams, with a timetable which compresses all the Olympic athletic disciplines (with the exception of marathon, race walking, and 10,000m) into one day. Our senior team normally travels up to two hours by bus for these matches, but we also host a match at Horspath each season. Matches are generally held on Saturdays. Competition is for under 17s and older, and our team is usually made up of a mixture of under 17, senior and veteran athletes.
Pictured above, OCAC athlete Hannah England, who joined the club as a junior. She was silver medallist in the 1500m at the World Championships in 2011.
