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Sports Awards 2023 - Sports Club Personality of the Year Shortlist

The Sports Club Personality of the Year is the individual who is the life and soul of your club – they’re loved by all and your club is a better one to be a part of because of them.

They might not necessarily be a Captain or committee member, but these individuals have all made a huge impact within their clubs and will be sorely missed when they leave!

Got your tickets for the big event yet? Reserve them for free, and join us to see who is crowned Sports Club Personality of the Year at the Sports Awards Event on Monday 19th June. 

 

Here's more about each of our fantastic nominees: 

1. Arden Dierker Viik (Hughes Hall), Association Football Club 

Arden has been playing for CUAFC longer than anyone else, having played her first match for CUAFC back in 2014 (albeit then having a gap in study between her MPhil and Grad Medicine course!). Arden continues to be a pivotal player for the women’s blues and has been an outstanding Vice Captain over the past two years.  

This year Arden helped the women’s blues reach the National Trophy final, and celebrated victory in her fifth Varsity match. With experience on her side, she is supportive and encouraging for all within the club, leading by example by being incredibly committed.

Arden is an incredible person and player, CUAFC wouldn’t be the same without her.

Our team mum, our hero.

 

2. Jessie Fischer (St. Catharine's), Dance Competition Team 

CUTAZZ President 2022-23, Social Secretary 2021-22, Treasurer 2020-21 - Jessie is a ray of sunshine, always happy and smiling, always checking in on everyone to make sure they are doing great. Everyone loves Jessie! She organised and ran the CUTAZZ annual show, organised and hosted a holiday over the Summer, and has amazingly positive vibes.

 

3. Mimo Sandford (Clare), Amateur Boxing Club  

Mimo "the Miller" Sandford. Women's Captain, La Jefa and the face of the Cambridge University Amateur Boxing Club this year. As a boxing club we are tight-knit and rely on the strong bonds between us to power through the gruelling training programme and intensity of the sport. And who do we tie ourselves around? Mimo Sandford. She is the beating heart of this club. From leading the returning Blue's in the pre-season, organising and leading the tasters and trials at the start of the year, right through the mind-bending January training camp, the Town v Gown show and the final showdown at the Varsity in Oxford, Mimo is the first person you see and the last person you hear when you're pushing through and fighting. Whether that is the last metres on that blasted hill for hill sprints or in the dying seconds of the 3rd round in the ring.

If there is one thing she does better than emptying the tank in the ring when she fights, its emptying her tank for you, supporting you when you fight. And all with a smile on her face. And that's all the on the scenes work in the gym and in the ring. Her graft behind the scenes with admin, organisation, negotiation and the final year of a vet degree is not quantifiable. As women's captain, she has done immense work for the women's side and yet despite being officially women's captain, she is really a captain for the whole club bringing us all together. We haven't even began to discuss the high calibre boxer she is. Chosen for Varsity two years in a row in a famously brutal sport. "Inspirational" is thrown around a lot nowadays, but Mimo is pretty undeniably up there.

In the CUABC we have a saying "Sine Labore Nihil" which translates to Nothing without labour. I would say this year it has been "Sine Mimo Nihil", nothing without Mimo Sandford.

 

4. Miranda Clements (Hughes Hall), Modern Pentathlon Club, Boat Club, Cycling Club 

Miranda has been a source of optimism, inspiration and joy since she arrived at CUMPC's pre-season training in September last year. We could hardly believe our luck - an ex-lightweight blues boat rower who wanted to try something different. Since then she's been a pentathlon training regular (when she isn't away on clinical placement), somehow managing to juggle her love of cycling with picking up shooting, fencing, and riding, while also improving her swimming and running fitness, all while finishing a medical degree.

She's a contender for one of Cambridge's best athletes this year in her own right, having won BUCS medals with cycling, and having been a part of three winning varsity teams (Pentathlon, Cycling, and Triathlon) this year alone. Miranda has always brought so much positivity with her to every training session. She will scream support at any Cambridge athlete as they race round a track. Her drive to perform is also inspiring. She is always willing to share ideas about training, injury prevention, or general Cambridge survival tips given she has made it through 4 years of graduate-entry medicine.

I'm sure that anyone who has had the pleasure of training and competing with Miranda would say that she makes Cambridge sport that little bit extra special when she is present.

 

5. Simrat Sodhi (Lucy Cavendish), Ice Hockey Club  

Sim is THE personality of the CUIHC. As the club president for the past three years, Sim has kept the club running smoothly, consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty, and done all of this with an enthusiasm and love of hockey and the CUIHC that is infectious to anyone around her. Sim is the most positive and enthusiastic person you could meet, and keeps team spirits and excitement high no matter the situation. Before a game or practice, you can find Sim in the changing room, blasting 90s pump up music from her speaker, cracking jokes, and motivating her teammates. Sim’s dedication extends beyond the Women’s Blues as she often helps out with the Men’s Blues, helping with logistics, score keeping, and making sure matches run smoothly. She’s been known for her mid-game repairs of the ice rink and for stepping in as a medical personnel when players get injured - she really does it all.

Every season Sim also spends countless hours and amounts of energy liaising with the ice rink to negotiate for the best practice times for all three teams in the club. Away from the rink, Sim is the life of the party and always encouraging (and hosting) social events to bring our players together.  Possibly Sim’s greatest contribution to the club has been spearheading the merger of the Cambridge University Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Club into one unified club, the CUIHC (also including the Huskies, the development team). Aside from the huge improvement in administrative burden and organisational and logistical tasks, the merger has led to an unbelievable improvement in club spirit and cohesion. We anticipate the benefits of the merger to significantly outlive Sim’s time as a member of the Women’s Blues and she has had a considerable impact on the future of the CUIHC.

Sim is truly the life and soul of the CUIHC and the club wouldn’t be the same without her! From her tireless dedication to the club, to her enthusiasm and positive energy, we think Sim is an ideal candidate for the Sports Club Personality of the Year.    

 

6. Tom Wade (St. Catharine's), Cycling Club & Badminton Club 

Out of the four clubs I am a member, CUCC is the most fun club to be a part of and that is single-handedly down to Tom. Despite being busy writing up his thesis and also in demand from CUBaC for matches, Tom stepped up last minute to be this year's social sec; his putting the club first has only become more evident throughout the year. His CUCC dedication was highlighted at mountain bike varsity when his shifter broke (so he had to ride without shifting gears) which included running up the hills that were too big to do in the gear he had, yet still finished 6th! Tom is always the first to step up for covering others' roles; he has led more than his fair share of the green/blue rides (beginner/ easy rides) and always helps out at turbo sessions. 

Using his network of friends he has organised more swaps than we have ever had before (yet turnout is still high and CUCC will nearly always have a better turnout than the other club) and grown the weekly Wednesday pub trip. It now even has enough momentum to continue outside of term-time (with the grad students) demonstrating that it is not just desperate undergrads looking for friends who will sit and have a pint with Tom; most clubs have great difficulty in keeping grad students engaged with socials but not CUCC! Tom is "just general great vibes and a (literally) good laugh".  Tom is also an extremely generous and kind person. He drives the van containing all the bikes to most events and is always the first to jump in the back to start loading or unloading the bikes. After one race, he drove the van back from the sports centre via my house (the opposite direction to his, yet still claimed that it was "on his way") to drop my bike so that I did not have to go back to the sports centre the next morning. Meanwhile, the mountain bike captain said that Tom giving him an entire tub of Biscoff spread on training camp was "one of the most selfless acts someone can do".

His laugh is infectious and once he starts, the entire room (including himself) will be in stitches. He was applauded by the entire Belgian Development team at the buffet dinner on training camp upon coming back after leaving to be sick from laughing TOO much...! Tom always cares for others, whether that be drawing a new cyclist out of their shell on a ride or looking out for girls on a club night out. During rides, we rotate through so that you chat to different people and everyone always looks forward to being paired with Tom. When I end up on the front with him, even though it is harder work, I will suffer for much longer than with anyone else before swapping as he is such a great person to chat to: always interested in your life and modest about his own. When one of the riders realised he was going to be late to the start of BUCS TT, Tom told him to sit in his slipstream and towed him all the way to the start, sacrificing his own race by putting in such an effort in his "warm-up". 

In summary, "if Petter won it [Personality of the Year], then Tom has it wrapped up"! [Alex Petter was the inaugural category winner back in 2020].