2019 news lightblueswin 883x432 1

Light Blues win

9 April 2019

The article at a glance

Three Cambridge Judge students celebrate men’s and women’s victories over Oxford in The Boat Race. Three Cambridge Judge Business School students celebrated …

Three Cambridge Judge students celebrate men’s and women’s victories over Oxford in The Boat Race.

Sophie Deans, Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk, Pippa Whittaker
Sophie Deans (MPhil in Management 2018), Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (MPhil in Management 2018), Pippa Whittaker (MFin 2018)

Three Cambridge Judge Business School students celebrated as the men’s and women’s Cambridge rowing crews beat Oxford in The Boat Race for the second successive year on Sunday 7 April.

Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (MPhil Management 2018), who took part in the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016, helped the Light Blues win the men’s race by two seconds – a one-length victory with a winning time of 16 minutes, 57 seconds. It was the 165th men’s race: Cambridge University Boat Club now holds 84 victories and Oxford 80, with a dead heat in 1877.

Ahead of the race, Natan said: “It’s an honour to be part of this historical race, experience and the Cambridge University Boat Club. As a child I always watched The Boat Race with my parents and it was always one of my dreams to compete in it.”

In the women’s race, Pippa Whittaker (MFin 2018) and Sophie Deans (MPhil Management 2018) were both in the winning boat that won by five lengths in a time of 18 minutes, 47 seconds, or 17 seconds ahead of Oxford. Cambridge now has 44 victories and Oxford 30.

Pippa, who worked in the finance sector before starting her Master of Finance studies at Cambridge Judge, said The Boat Race is different because “there is such focus on just one race and it means so much to people (not) in the boat with you. You always feel you are part of something bigger and that’s really special.”

Sophie Deans, who started rowing in Sydney at the age of 12, said it’s very challenging to be a high-level athlete whilst studying at Cambridge Judge, but the sport has definitely “helped me to succeed in the classroom, as rowing has helped me to develop a strong work ethic and resilience that is transferable to much more than sport alone.”