Last Monday we had our College Athletics Carnival and it was just wonderful to see the boys in Year 7 out on the track and participating so fully in the activities of the day.
The weather kept us guessing with the boys starting the school day in drizzle and asking the usual question “is the carnival on” and being given the usual response “don’t be silly, of course it is!” As the morning wore on, the weather cleared and by the time the carnival started at 11am we had a beautiful day for our final hours of summer.
It certainly heated up around one o’clock – just in time for the 1500m race. This race deserves special mention for our boys in Year 7 as the determination that they had to get involved was nothing short of outstanding. Officially, ten boys in Year 7 were down to take part and it was listed as an “invitation only” event. When the time came, however, 30 Year 7 boys arrived at the marshalling area and the starters allowed all the boys to compete. In fact, Year 7 was the only year group that, due to the number of competitors, had their own race. It was so pleasing to see the number of boys keen to compete in the longest race of the day and I commend them for this.
Each boy in the College was expected to compete in both a 100m race and a 400m race. In addition to this, the boys had the opportunity to run in the 200m, 800m and 1500m races. On top of this, the field events of shot put, long jump and high jump were also available for the boys. Every single one of these events was chock-a-block full and the boys certainly gave their best efforts.
Little bits of rain during the second half of the carnival was certainly no deterrent for the boys who finished off the day with a 4 x 100m relay.
Special congratulations should go to Chris Thompsett (St Ives) who finished the day as our Under 13s Age Champion. Chris won the 100m, 200m and long jump. He also came second in the 400m. Chris contributed a massive 38 points to the Gold Team. Coming second in the Age Champion competition was Jack Kofod (South Coogee) who won the 3000m, 1500m and 800m – Jack contributed 32 points to the Red team.
The results for the Under 13s are summarised below:
Well done to these boys who finished as place-getters in each of the events. A tremendous effort, keeping in mind that the Under 13s age group had over 180 boys in it!
I spoke to the boys the Thursday before the carnival and mentioned to them that I was a believer that the College Athletics Carnival, being early in the year, was a good indicator as to the character of a form and their attitude towards giving things a go. There is no doubt that for some boys, the athletics carnival is one of their favourite days of the year – for others, they dread the thought of running in front of the grand-stand. To the credit of the boys in Year 7, each and every boy not only participated but did so to the best of his ability and through this determination to do their best, no matter their ability, I was certainly incredibly impressed with our Year 7 boys!
And of course the final question to be answered? Which colour house won the day? A big congratulations to the Blue team who came out the eventual winners. They will celebrate their victory with a special BBQ on Tuesday.
Photo 1: Jasper Hooper (Turramurra) takes flight in the long-jump.
Photo 2: Joe Flannery (Forbes) and Gus Vivers (Gulgong) fight it out in the 400m race.
Photo 3: Cooper Powell (Hunters Hill) puts every inch of effort into his 100m race.
Photo 4: The start of the 800m race – a great example of the Year 7 participation.