Your impact: Sports bursaries

Every year, the St Catharine’s College Annual Fund offers sports bursaries to students, enabling them to take part in sports, and compete for College and the University. These bursaries ensure that any student in College can take part and excel in their chosen sports.

Bethan Matthew

“I am so grateful to receive a sports bursary. It allows me to compete in the University’s first team for sailing for the past two years. This is a mixed team of six people, including three of us from Catz. We were ranked as the top university team going into the BUCS finals this year. The finals were set to happen at the end of the Easter vacation at Graham Water, with Cambridge hosting the 170-competitor event. I was gutted the races were cancelled as a result of COVID-19, as we placed second last year.

“Sailing is an incredibly expensive sport: we travel to venues across the country each weekend to compete against the top university and alumni teams in the country. I would not be able to continue to compete at this high level without the College’s support.”

Fin Allen, 2012

“I feel very lucky to have received significant support for my sporting endeavours during my time at St Catharine’s. I have represented the University in mountain biking since my second year of undergraduate studies (2013), including contributing to three Varsity wins and earning my half-blue at the National Cross-Country Championships last year.

“Now a postgraduate chemist, I was fortunate to attend the Thetford Winter Series mountain biking competition earlier this year: in a competitive field I was very happy to place 3rd in the series overall.

“All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of the college, which has helped cover race entries, travel to events, and race costs. I’m extremely grateful for these opportunities, and would encourage other students to take advantage of them!”