Photos in the attachment

We were fortunate to participate in the recent Zespri AIMS Games in Tauranga for Year 7 & 8 students only.

This is an international event that is bigger than the Commonwealth Games for numbers involved .

11,500+ Competitors, 1800 + volunteers, 964 teams, 370+ schools competing over 25 codes in 7 days.

We had 47 students representing Chisnallwood across 7 codes. We would like to thank the parents of our individual competitors for travelling and supporting their child. A number of numbers were billeted by Tauranga Intermediate for the week.

Despite the wet weather for most of the week our tamariki performed well and represented the school with pride and enthusiasm. A special mention to James & Pina Lissaman (parents) who have devoted many hours, since November last year, to coaching the boys Basketball team. Your dedication to the sport and the boys is valued and appreciated.

Code Round ups:

Rugby 7’s Girls: Coach: Cleo Woodall, Manager: Lorrare Campbell(Parent)

Team: Briseis Rupene (Captain), Ester Leiataua, Lourdaz Timo, Kyla Smith, Amelia Saukuru, Charlee Sanders, Azarlia Hoeta, Georgia Tamihana, Zoe Enright, Taya-Rose Asomua-Green, Ababa (Amelia) Yismaw-Abohay

The girls rugby 7s had a tough first three days battling with the weather and playing some strong competition. The girls showed their determination and built on their connections as a team. The team had 9 games over the week and finished 9/12. 

Waterpolo: Coach: Jade Scott , Manager: Kate Alexander (Parent)

Team: Mahe Johnston (Captain) Jaxon Low, Isabella Alexander-Stewart, Aston Mitchell, Oscar Black, Tai Scanlan, KaahurangiTe-Whaiti, Payton Cloney, Caiutlin Thwaites, Zsolt Baumann, Grace Chamberlain

An extremely unforgiving pool structure saw our AIMS hockey team miss out on what could have been a deserving opportunity to be up for medal contention. The hockey team played 10 games over the course of the week walking away with 7 wins, 2 draws and one loss. Unfortunately with the nature of the tournament a draw in pool play saw the team just knocked out of top 8 contention.

The team however put in an extremely strong performance moving out of pull play to end up 27th and top of the bottom half of teams out of 53. All 10 players made an enormous contribution to their team with both their on field skill and attitude. Jackson Kyle was a stand out player for the team throughout the course of the week, scoring goals in the majority of the games, and using his quick pace and slick skills to evade defenders and keep us on top of most of our games.

Lola and Ryan combined to create a strong defensive unit which saw us only concede a total of 4 goals over the 10 games. The team played with incredible structure all week which showed that their brains for the game was well beyond their years, and we had many positive comments from other teams coaching staff around their structure and sound skills on the field, as well as their never give up attitudes and fearless play!

It was a pleasure to coach this team and to witness them continuing to develop as players and people throughout the week! 

Boys Basketball: Coaches James & Pina Lissaman

Team: Eli Lissaman (Captain), Calvary Maniapoto, Esten Lissaman, Israel Searle, Iziah Gulbransen-Thomas, Jaejae Greene, Jordan Pene, Kyraarn Kingi-Moreland, Mataio Ifopo-Togia, Tyler Low

A brutal competition structure saw the basketball team only drop one game all tournament, finishing with an excellent 7-1 record. This one loss unfortunately saw them miss out on a chance to play for the overall title, and instead win the “Championship Division” (officially finishing 17th out of 93 teams). We got to play the Northern-most team in the tournament (Kaitaia Intermediate), and teams from Rotorua, Gisborne, Auckland and Napier.

The team had contributions from all ten of its players: Eli and Jordan stood out on defence; Mataio and Kyraarn scored easily around the rim; Calvary lit it up from behind the three-point line; Jaejae and Esten ably brought the ball up the court whenever teams tried to pressure our team; and Iziah, Izzy and Tyler attacked defensive mistakes and either scored themselves or set up others.

The Chisnallwood team conducted themselves really well throughout the competition, and a number of other teams’ coaches commented positively on this, as well as how the Chisnallwood team played basketball. It was really enjoyable coaching this team, and seeing how much stronger their relationships grew with each other over the week up in Tauranga

Cross Country & Swimming : Tayla Cox

This year the competition for the AIMS cross country was really high and it was a really tough race. Although I felt really confident with the course and my ability to run my best race. The goal for me was never really to win but to give it my best shot and make sure I did the best I could. But when I did win it felt really good. I felt really proud racing for Chisnallwood. I had trained very hard and I hoped my hard work had paid off. Many people had very high hopes for me and really wanted me to win but at the end of the day I didn't really care where I got as long as I did my best. Swimming was also a really fun experience as I didn't do it last year. There were girls from other schools around Christchurch competing so it was really fun getting to know them. I didn’t really think I was going to do well at swimming as the other girls my age were way bigger than me but in the end I did really well and was really proud of myself. I got five top ten placings which I was stoked about.

Tayla Cox

Artistic Gymnastics: Grace Chamberlain

I was so proud to represent Chisnallwood for a second year at the 2023 AIMS Games in Tauranga, in gymnastics. There was some really tough competition again this year, but I placed third on floor and sixteenth over all. I competed in bar, beam, floor and vault.

I had so much fun at The Opening Ceremony and getting on the ‘Dance Cam’ with Izzy was so cool.

This year I also played Water Polo. I love being part of a team. I had lots of fun, until I got really sick and had to fly home early!

Grace Chamberlain

Brock and Liam took part in the individual and team racing on the BMX track.

The boys combined times in the tEams event saw them win by just 1 second over the favourites Tauranga Intermediate.

In the Individual time trials Liam finished a credible 11/21 riders in the Year 7 boys event and in the Year 8 Brock 4/19. Just finishing the podium by .2 of a second. 

BMX: Brock & Liam Steedman

In Tauranga we saw Brock and Liam Steedman compete in the BMX event.

This was split up into 3 different sections involving an individual Time Trial, Schools Teams Challenge and individual racing.

Both boys had very good competition coming up against familiar riders.

First up was the time trial which consisted of 2 individual laps with the track to yourself going as fast as you can. First one being a qualifying lap and the 2nd coming out slowest to fastest from his qualifying lap.

Liam qualified 12th from first lap and finished faster in his 2nd attempt finishing 11th in Year 7 boys. Brock then qualified 2nd but finished 4th in his Year 8 boys section.

Brock broke the record for the fastest time down the ramp for the event in his first attempt then broke it again in his second attempt being the fastest overall with a time of 2.59 seconds.

Next up was the Schools Teams cup.

Both boys were confident. They both knew Tauranga were favourites but they knew what needed to be done and that was to do their best, race smart and collect points.

After some tough racing Brock won all his races with Liam making valuable passes when he needed to.

They made the semis, Brock still dominating his races they both qualified for the Final where it was all on. None of us knew what the points situation was so they just needed to go out and go as fast as they could.

Brock took out the final with Liam finishing in 7th. After the points were counted, it was announced 30 min later that Chisnallwood Intermediate had won the gold!

The next day was a wet day for all for their individual racing. Both boys had mixed results.

Liam made his semis but unfortunately missed out on his final.

Brock made semis, won his semi but unfortunately as the gate went down in the final he unclipped from his pedals which saw him at the back but fought up to 5th at one stage then spinning out in last corner to finish 7th.

Both boys took away valuable experience and lots of positives. Regardless of the results, importantly they had fun doing what they love.

Darrin Steedman (Coach)