The typically sterile surrounds of the University Sports Centre overflowed with emotion and champagne moments last Monday, as the 2025 Sports Awards shone a deserved spotlight on the University’s brightest athletic sparks. At a university teeming with remarkable people, twelve extraordinary individuals and four outstanding clubs managed to dazzle their way above stiff competition and swoop up awards across the nine categories.

To borrow Director Mark Brian’s self-effacing words, 2025 “was a pretty impressive year” for light blue sport – a heady 19th in the overall BUCS standings, out of 175 universities; worthy winners of some twelve BUCS leagues, eight BUCS finals, and 6 individual golds. A sparkling haul in and of itself – made all the more glittering by Cambridge’s lofty perch atop this year’s academic rankings and the mania of eight week terms.

Eminent company was on hand for the afternoon’s honours, with World Rugby Hall of Famer Deborah Griffin – set to present the trophy at the imminent women’s World Cup – furnishing the women’s Cross Country A side as 2025’s Team of the Year. The four fleet-footed light blues ripped up Birmingham and Loughborough’s 25 year stranglehold over the BUCS cross country championships this March, and every single team member has earned a GB vest – in a phenomenal testimony to their talent.

“The exceptional was the order of the day”

Behind every Cambridge triumph lies a number of hidden hands, and the ceremony’s second award – Unsung Hero – placed these often concealed, yet immeasurably significant contributions centre stage. Emma Patterson’s five years of tireless dedication to the Mixed Lacrosse club culminated in snagging the 2025 prize, and her half a decade of devotion continues to resonate through changes she implemented to College League regulations that are followed to this day.

The celebration-drenched proceedings were also peppered with affecting tributes to seven separate Outstanding Contribution winners. On an afternoon where the exceptional was the order of the day, each of Lucy Xu, Sam Grimshaw, Georgina Quayle, Ben Rhodes, Izzy Howse, Ksenija Belada, Izzy Winter and Jess Reeve “had gone truly above and beyond in their contribution to sport and their club”. There were damp eyes aplenty among the elite septet, with Xu’s depiction of the taekwondo team as “a second family” alongside Belada and Howse’s stifled tears evocatively demonstrating university sport’s indelible impact.

It’s in the award’s name that all seven recipients are outstanding, but two winners were so unique, so singularly inspiring that their work transcends anything they could have achieved in the heat of athletic competition. Izzy Winter and Jess Reeve co-founded Clarissa’s Campaign for Cambridge Hearts after an undiagnosed cardiac condition heart wrenchingly claimed their dear friend’s life – and have since turned tragedy into trailblazing by screening over 400 students for potentially lethal heart problems over the last academic year alone. Jess’s quip that “Clarissa would find it funny that we’re even at a sports awards” was intended to make light of her and Izzy’s limited on-pitch credentials, but it perfectly encapsulates the universal power of their cause.

College sport may not carry the prestige of a light blue blazer, but it provides such an invaluable athletic outlet for so many. In October last year, Downing Table Tennis club did not officially exist; by May this year their first team had won every single major college competition. It’s a stunning turnaround to say the least, and one that was rightfully embellished with the College Team of the Year award.

Passion and soul so often play a core role in success, hence why the afternoon’s next honour had “absolutely nothing to do with sporting ability”. Modern Pentathlon’s Tads Ciercierski-Holmes was deservedly crowned Sports Club Personality of the Year, having poured every last fibre of his being into the club’s fortunes. Not only does Tads both organise and coach training sessions – quite the undertaking for a sport that combines five distinct disciplines – he was also instrumental in facilitating the first ever BUCS Para-Pentathlon, and navigating the new fangled introduction of obstacle courses to the sport’s portfolio.

Every year, Varsity matches see hours upon hours of training ground toil distilled into fleeting moments of matchday magic. Cai La-Trobe Robert’s stunning hat-trick at an adoring Abbey stadium was one of 2025’s instant classics, but even he was pipped to the Sporting Moment of the Year prize by the Men’s Volleyball Varsity set point. A typical volleyball set lasts until a side reaches 25 with a two-point advantage, but in an unbelievably close set against Oxford the nerveless light blues clawed their back from multiple break points and eventually triumphed by a staggering 38-36.

“Helmich is the epitome of extraordinary”

An already fruitful afternoon for the Modern Pentathlon Club was soon to taste even sweeter, with the remarkable Lauren Airey scooping up Newcomer of the Year. Coming back to a sport that tests you across five markedly different events after breaking your back is impressive on its own. To place 14th at National Rankings and captain the women’s Blues to Varsity victory? Pretty incredible.

Through sheer force of excellence, the Association Football club managed to muscle their way to the top of the University’s whopping 77 sports clubs and were bestowed Club of the Year. Their 2025 was the stuff of dreams: they entered two brand new BUCS teams - both won their leagues, one even went unbeaten; the Blues pulled off a home Varsity double in front of over 2000 adoring fans; the Second and Third teams triumphed in three out of four Varsities to the delight of the almost one thousand Cantabs roaring them on.

In a University deluged with overachievers, it was always going to take something rather special to win Sports Person of the Year. Jan Helmich is the epitome of extraordinary - he came to Cambridge having never set foot in a rowing boat, went on to become the first ever para-rower to be awarded a Blue, and won Germany’s only rowing medal at 2024’s Paris Paralympics. A bronze medal on the greatest stage in sport? Simply unreal, let alone for someone who “only started rowing thanks to my time here”.