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Photo by Patricia Hopcroft

Latest Sport Update

Miss P Hopcroft —

Please see latest sports update with the Government's announcement we are staying in Alert Level 4 lockdown until at least 11.59pm Friday 27th August.

As you will be aware, with the return of Covid-19 in our Community, Winter Tournament week has been cancelled for the second consecutive year. We would like to take this time to acknowledge the following Columba College teams who were to be competing around the country next week:

The Senior A Netball team was scheduled to compete in the SISS Netball tournament in Timaru, our First XI Football team was off to Blenheim to participate in the NZSS Gary Sowden Football Tournament, the First XI Hockey team were due to fly out on Sunday to compete in the week long Federation Cup – Marie Fry Tournament in Napier, and our Junior Basketball team was heading to Nelson to take part in the SS Premierships Zone 4 Girls Tournament.

We appreciate and share in the huge disappointment that our athletes and families will currently be feeling. We would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication our students, coaches, managers and families have put into preparing for these prestigious sporting events. To have them taken away, for a second successive year, is a cruel blow. For many of our students, especially those in their final year, sporting events such as these are often the pinnacle in their sporting experience at Columba College.

Sport provides us with many life lessons: how nothing comes without hard work, how to lead and be a part of a team, to be resilient, to win with humility and to move on from our losses. It is vitally important that we look out for each other at this time, acknowledge our shared loss, and reset our goals.

In further updates, Dunedin Netball has cancelled all of its events scheduled for late last week and this week. They will only be looking to postpone the premier, senior and secondary school finals which have tentatively been rescheduled to Saturday 11th September.

All hockey has been cancelled until further notice. In an update on Tuesday, Otago Hockey Association said it was committed to holding school and club finals but would wait for more information around the Covid-19 restrictions.

Due to Level 4 lockdown, our football teams will be missing a total of two rounds of competition as well as any additional games that were scheduled for catch-ups. At this stage, any and all football will not be able to commence until we are at Level 2. We will provide further information around the postponement of games as we receive them.

Otago Basketball is eagerly awaiting the next announcement in the hope that competition can start again as the region moves down alert levels. Basketball, however, will be unable to restart until we are at Level 2 and even then it is going to be very tricky. In regards to Secondary School grades, Kiwi Hoops and Social Basketball, we will be in touch once we receive further information from Otago Basketball.

As Director of Sport at Columba, I will work closely with our Sports Administrator, Mrs Beardmore, the Regional Sporting Organisations, School Sport NZ, and the Otago Secondary School Sports Association to determine what, when, and where sporting opportunities can resume for our students. It is extremely disappointing, once again, to have our teams on the sidelines, but in the current environment, it most certainly is the right thing to do. The health and safety of all our rangatahi are at the forefront of our minds. We will, of course, be monitoring this closely as information becomes available and will update you as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your understanding during these times. I think you will all agree that prioritising a safe return to sport is an important collective goal for us all.

Please keep safe and stay positive in the hope that we may return to 'normal' soon!

A reminder about Alert Level 4

  • Only essential services are able to operate.
  • All indoor venues and sporting facilities, including clubrooms and gyms, are closed.
  • Organised sports and physical activity are not allowed outside of your bubble.
  • You can train at home, or outdoor places in your local area. Maintain physical distancing with people outside your bubble.
  • Contact activity or sharing equipment/balls with people outside your bubble is prohibited.
  • All water-based activities are prohibited because these activities expose participants to danger or may require search and rescue services.

Further reminders:

  • The Government is asking everyone to wear a mask and keep a two-metre distance whenever you leave your home.
  • Practice good hygiene including handwashing.
  • If you’re sick, call your doctor or Healthline on 09800 358 5453.
  • To remind yourself of what happens at Alert Level 4, go to the COVID-19 website here.
  • If you have questions about sports operations at alert levels, please first refer to Sport New Zealand’s Alert guidance here.
  • Further Sport NZ guidance on how to manage day-to-day activities and events as part of pandemic planning and operational management can be found here.
  • Details on the broader range of restrictions in place at Alert Level 4 can be accessed at the Unite Against COVID-19 web site.
  • Guidance about what you can do in the workplace at COVID-19 alert levels can be obtained from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment here.
  • Keeping scanning QR codes if you go out (such as to supermarkets).
  • The Government’s COVID-19 website can be found here.
  • All our COVID-19 Updates are available here