St Catherine's College Rowing Society
President: Colin Smith
Vice Presidents: Neil Chugani, Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE, Zoe de Toledo, Andrew Triggs Hodge OBE.

The Benjamin F. Sylvester Jr Award

The winner of the 2025 award is

Juan-Pablo Cajiga-Pena

JP Cajiga-Pena

[BFS Award]

From some of those who nominated him ...

Despite only learning to cox at the beginning of the year, JP has done a lot in his role as captain of coxes, offering an invaluable support to the many novice coxes at Catz. Always eager to improve, JP has jumped in to cox a large number of outings on both the women’s and the men’s sides. In addition to this, JP has always been a friendly and welcoming face, significantly contributing to the atmosphere of the entire boat club
JP has put a huge amount of effort into learning to cox this year and generally supporting the boat club. Considering how rough the weather/river has been this year, the number of outings he's managed to get under his belt as a novice is something of a miracle. On the Bled training camp, he coxed all day every day, and essentially became a coach.
Also nominated were: Emma Coakley, Ingrid Habrekke, Emma Halliday and Lucia Pyne.

Background of the Award

At the North American alumni reunion on March 16, 2002, Sir Peter Williams announced the establishment of an award to commemorate the splendid and varied contributions made by Benjamin F. Sylvester, Jr to the College. The award has been funded by the St Catherine's College (Oxford) Foundation.
A Benjamin F. Sylvester, Jr medal will be given annually to the member of the Boat Club who has most significantly contributed to enhancing the rowing life of St Catherine's College, Oxford.
Names of winners will also be displayed on a plaque to be mounted in the boathouse club room. Nominations will be solicited from members of the Boat Club and will be judged by a committee of former College oarsmen. The medal, designed by Dana Edmondson, depicts a Catherine wheel comprised of oars on a background of water. At the ends of the oars are flames symbolizing warmth and illumination. At the center of the medal is the crest of St Catherine's College, Oxford.

Design for the Benjamin F. Sylvester, Jr medal
[BFS Medal]

Previous Winners

2024 [no award]
2023 Eugenio Vecchi
2022 Niamh Louwman
2021 Ilayda Karadag
2020 Chloe Bregazzi
2019 Jakob Kaeppler (Rachel Craig-McFeeley proxime accessit)
2018 Holly Smith
2017 Georgios Ntentas
2016 James Wills (Alice Pickthall proxime accessit)
2015 Miriam Mahmoud
2014 Ben Baron
2013 Joshua Morgan
2012 Joanna Harrall
2011 Theresa Kevorkian (Phillip McCullough proxime accessit)
2010 Jack Plummer
2009 Anu Dudhia (Special Award)
2009 Malcolm Spencer
2008 James Dunbar (Dane van den Akker proxime accessit)
2007 Michael Tran (Katharine Pierce proxime accessit)
2006 Darren Chadwick (Michael Tran proxime accessit)
2005 Steve Wicks
2004 Dan Robson
2003 Mike Bull
2002 Emily Woodeson
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