Warwick Jailbreak 2016 winners travel furthest in almost a decade

The winner of this year’s Warwick Jailbreak is team ‘Aeli Hit the Road’ who reached Muscat in Oman by the 11pm deadline on Sunday 6 November.

The team members Alixia Tordjman and Elliot Cervantes covered a distance of 4,759 miles. In total this year’s Jailbreak participants raised over £25,000 in aid of Breast Cancer Now.

Warwick Jailbreak Society organise this charity event every year. Teams of two to four students have 36 hours to get as far away as possible from the University of Warwick.

They cannot spend their own money on travel and so must rely on getting free tickets for public transport or lifts from members of the public.

Last year’s Jailbreak winner reached Rome and there is some debate over the official record held by Warwick Jailbreak participants.

This year’s Jailbreak participants raised over £25,000 in aid of Breast Cancer Now.

It is thought to be held either by the 2014 winning team who reached Tel Aviv in Israel or the 2007 winners who made it further, reaching Bangkok, but allegedly planned their journey ahead of time.

Louis Grimaldi, Digital Officer for the Jailbreak society, explained: “What we do know is that this year a team reached Oman, which beats the current ‘non-shady’ record of Tel Aviv.”

104 teams set off from Warwick Campus at 11am on Saturday 5 November. The Jailbreak executive said it was a “really big turnout”, and even with the increased competition the majority of teams managed to make it out of the country.

Other countries reached this year by Warwick Jailbreak participants include: France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Belgium and Italy.

The runners up ‘I Beg We Get Out of Coventry’ reached Tenerife and ‘Make Charity Great Again’ reached Fuerteventura. In the final few hours one of these teams looked set to take first place.

However, Rishi Shah, President of Warwick Jailbreak, was correct when he predicted: “It looks as though there’s going to be a last-minute shock result.”

With only five hours before the deadline, Alixia and Elliot boarded a plane from Istanbul to Oman.

Shortly after hearing they had won, Alixia commented: “We don’t believe it, we have been through so many hopeless moments especially at Dover where no one wanted to take us in their car! But it was an amazing experience that we’ll definitely do again.”

Rishi stated: “You start the weekend having absolutely no idea where you’ll be, it’s that element of mystery and throwing yourself into the unknown that makes jailbreak so special.”

Warwick Jailbreak’s chosen charity for this year was Breast Cancer Now; the UK’s largest breast cancer research charity.

The Jailbreak Exec said: “It’s an amazing charity which inspired everyone’s fundraising.”