Here it is, your chance to vote for the winner of the Sporting Moment of the Year Award!
This award celebrates those unforgettable moments that live long in the memory after graduation. As this is an audience vote, your votes will decide the ultimate winner!
Voting is now closed!
Got your tickets for the big event yet? Reserve them for free, and join us to see who takes the Sporting Moment of the Year Award at the Sports Awards Event on Monday 19th June.
Here's more about each of our fantastic nominees:
1. CUABC celebrate after Chike Pilgrim (Darwin) wins the heavyweight bout and Cambridge secure Varsity victory in Oxford
"It is the 114th Boxing Varsity in the oldest continuous boxing fixture in the world. In the face of 750 Oxford fans and as massive underdogs in terms of the combined experience of the squad, our fighters had overturned the home-side advantage that the Oxford boxers stepped into the ring with. In the men's 9-bout fixture, Elliot Tebboth (Light-heavy weight) won it for us in the 8th fight of the night. The final and 9th fight on the cards was the men's heavyweight contest. Chike Pilgrim (Heavyweight) is our big man who had been kept away from the drama of the night up to this point, sitting and warming up alone in the lonely dressing room under the stage and kept deliberately oblivious to the delirium of his team above him. The pressure of being the last fighter on a big night means you are the only one left in the dressing room.
He steps into the ring against an Oxford man 3kg heavier, with 3 inches of height on him and most crucially YEARS of experience. The odds on paper looked to be in Dark Blue's favour, and the crowd let us know it. When the two heavyweights start swinging blows in the ring every punch packed a bomb. But Chike is absolutely undaunted by the crowd. And in the first round, in the bombardment of punches, Chike catches his opponent so so sweet and the Oxford man hits the canvas! As the Oxford heavyweight goes down, Chike rises and leaps in the air roaring. Chike's name means "Power of God" and we can only imagine what was going through the Oxford man's mind as he lay dazed on the canvas 6ft 5' under Chike's leaping celebration. The ref allows the fight to continue, but the end at this point was inevitable. The second time the Oxford man went down, his coach was waving the towel and he wasn't getting up before the count.
Heavyweight victory, knockout win, huge upset. Chike Pilgrim somehow launched our Cambridge team, were already up on the moon, into the stars. Unforgettable in Boxing Varsity History."
2. Tim Wallace (Downing) hits a six to win the T20 Varsity at Lord's, following up on the earlier exploits of batters Harry Houillon (Fitzwilliam) and Hari Kukreja (St. Edmund's), who both scored half centuries
"Tim hit a six into the crowd to seal a third consecutive Varsity win at Lord's for Cambridge. Tim came in a high pressure situation, and hit a dominant 15 off 6 balls, including two huge sixes. Not only was the winning moment amazing in itself, but it also capped off a fantastic team performance, as we chased down 175 only 3 wickets down, with 8 balls to spare."
"Harry scored a half century at Lord's for the second year in a row to lead his side to the win. After what seemed to be a huge score of 175 for Oxford, Harry received excellent support from Hari Kukreja who also scored a half-century. They both hit crowd-pleasing sixes and the run-chase looked pretty comfortable in the end!"
3. Alice Good (Emmanuel) wins HM The Queens' Prize, one of the most coveted prizes in rifle shooting, having begun as a novice as a new student in 2018
Alice is only the 3rd woman to have won the event in 162 years, and is among the youngest, so her performance was not only impressive but historic and will be outstanding for many years to come. This is hugely inspirational and encouraging other markswomen and young shooters, in a traditionally male-dominated sport.
"Alice qualified for the final stage with no points dropped, setting her in good stead for the final of 100 competitors. Throughout the morning, many good-humoured jokes about her winning were made (by herself and by teammates) as it seemed so far-fetched - and yet, after the first part at 900 yards, she had only dropped 2 points and was top of the leaderboard. She was told by her coach to not look at all at the huge live leaderboard on display, so she followed that advice, kept her head down, and got ready for 1000 yards - and she did it again. She won convincingly, on both full points and v-bulls, when often the scores are only down to v-bulls in difference. The anticipation as the final few shots were made was unparalleled, especially as CURA members were helping to collect scores from all competitors and enter them onto the live leaderboard. CURA then carried her in a chair down from the range to the main camp, as is tradition, and then in the evening she was chaired around all the clubhouses for a long night of celebration.
What is especially impressive is how her victory contrasted to those before her, which were almost entirely much older men. Alice was a university student, who had only started shooting when she arrived at Cambridge in 2018 as a complete novice, taught and coached by her peers. Her rifle was put together by her boyfriend Jacob, she was borrowing club kit, and she relied on a ziptie to hold her sling in place. And yet despite the odds, her talent, skill, and perseverance still triumphed over the decades of experience most of her competitors had, and will be remembered for as long as the sport continues."
4. Jasper Parish (Clare) Steering CUBC to Boat Race Victory
In a week of Light Blue dominance on the Thames, Jasper put the icing on the cake with his daring coxing in the Men's Blue Boat.
"Jasper Parish read a choppy and blustery Tideway to perfection as, in the heat of the moment, he broke from the traditional line to steer for the shelter of the Fulham flats. Away from the fast water in the centre of the river, he cut the corner to find smoother water in unexpectedly rough conditions, which on any other day would have been a devastating blunder for a Middlesex crew. His gamble paid off as in a crucial minute of the race, he took his crew from 2 seats down to 3/4 of a length up before driving them to a length up down the following reach. The speed of the two crews was incredibly well matched as Oxford hung on for the entirety of the course but Jasper's daring move put Cambridge in the driving seat and took control of the race to beat the bookies' favourites by 1 1/3 lengths, completing CUBC's 2023 clean sweep and carving himself a spot in the storied history of the Boat Race."
