Congratulations to Darwinian Ben Rutherford and Sean Hayes of Jesus College, who secured a decisive victory for Cambridge in the first event of this year’s Boat Race week yesterday.
The two raced against Oxford in the Spare Pairs race, in which duos of rowers compete over the first mile of the Boat Race course.
Ben learned to row at high school in Washington DC, before going on to become heavyweight team captain as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. At Cambridge he is working towards an MPhil in Planning Growth and Regeneration at the Department of Land Economy.
This Sunday will see another Darwinian take to the Tideway, as Mia Freischem takes her place with the Blondie crew. A Darwin PhD student in Surgery, Mia has been selected to row for the Women’s Reserve team. Blondie will race the Oxford Women’s Reserve crew, Osiris, ahead of the televised Blues Boat races this Sunday.
Originally from Germany, Mia learned to row at Edinburgh University, where she became President of the University Boat Club while completing her Masters in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry.
“Rowing has given me a community in any country that I have lived in,” she says.
“I have been a member of rowing clubs in three different countries and they all have provided a very supportive and tight knit community.”
