Boat Club President enjoys boost from Olympians

  • 04 March 2022
  • 4 minutes

Boosted by the presence of three Olympians in the Blue boat, Bronya Sykes (Natural Sciences (Biological) 2019) is excited at the prospect of returning to the Tideway for the 2022 Boat Race.

The Women’s President of Cambridge University Boat Club is excited by the potential of a boat which is set to include New Zealanders Grace Prendergast, Ruby Tew (both of Queens’) and Briton Imogen Grant (Trinity), who all rowed at the Tokyo Olympics. 

Paige Badenhorst (Magdalene) is another talented import and there are four returners from the 2021 crew which won the Boat Race at Ely. The crew announcement for the April 3 race is scheduled for March 7.

“To be able to return to the Tideway with a bang is going to be exciting. It’s going to be a really good race,” Bronya says.

“We were very lucky to be able to race last year at Ely, but it’s the excitement of going somewhere else, the capital city, an historic course and the legacy of it which is very exciting.

“We talked about Ely being our home course and having the advantage, but ultimately we all do want to race on the Tideway. That’s where we want to race.

“We’re very lucky to have been joined by people at the top of the rowing world this year, with the likes of Grace, Ruby and Imogen. But across the squad it’s a great group.

“We have people who learnt to row in college rapidly rising up like Clare and Millie, great Tideway coxing experience in Jasper and Dylan, an exciting group of returners and people coming in from other impressive programmes like Paige and Jenna. The lightweights are also looking really strong this year.”

Bronya anticipates a strong challenge from Oxford, as always, in the first Boat Race on The Thames in three years, due to the pandemic-enforced cancellation in 2020, and the move brought about by the pandemic, and the structural damage to Hammersmith Bridge.

It means Bronya, who began rowing at Trafford Rowing Club in Manchester, has had to wait for a first Boat Race on the Tideway. An interview with Bronya from 2021 is on the Caius website.

While it looks like the Cambridge boat almost picks itself, Bronya insists that is not the case and that the Olympians’ performances in training have spurred her and her team-mates on.

“The Olympians coming in still have to still put in the work,” she says.

“In the most part it encourages everyone else to raise their game; the rest of us are fighting for fewer seats, arguably, and we want to raise our standard to get closer to their standard.

“It’s a super exciting year to be part of CUBC because of all of that.”

An eight-crew rowing boat with cox rowing on a still river into a low sunshine

Photo credit: Mike Taylor

Bronya has enjoyed being the Cambridge representative at events like the Presidents’ challenge, and playing an integral role in the running of the fully-integrated club. This has included cultural sessions, with lessons coming from Will it make the boat go faster? a book by Ben Hunt-Davis, who was in the men’s eight which won gold for Britain at Sydney 2000 despite years of underwhelming results.

Everything in sport and away from it began with the question will it make the boat go faster? If it did, they would keep doing it; if not, they would try something different. It is something Bronya’s crew adopted, in part.

“We decided our core values are as a squad,” Bronya says.

“The main one we spoke about a lot was the idea of trust. Trust that the programme’s going to work; trust that each and every one of us is doing their best; valuing each other; celebrating what each other is doing; being excited and enthusiastic about one another. 

“It’s not just you, it’s everyone else as well.”

Bronya was speaking over Zoom and her bedroom walls are adorned with rowing photographs, while her (empty) magnum bottle of champagne from last year’s victory acts as a reminder and motivation. The taste of success is something she is eager to appreciate on April 3.

Main photo credit, with Bronya pictured right: Nordin Ćatić

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