Hero photograph
Sports Day
 
Photo by Andy Parsons

Sports Day

Scott Bayne —

This year’s Sports Day, unlike last year, managed to last the whole day without raining, a great start! Once again each House was proudly represented with a barrage of colour and noise. With over 130 events to get through it showcased some of our best athletes, striving to break records, win points for their House and generally have fun along the way. Last year, Aoraki won the day and as previous winners sat in prime position by the finish line, but could this year see them moved?

Running Sports day is a complicated task that requires all students and teachers to keep every event on track, and it can sometimes be confusing. In total, there are nearly 2000 individual entries to keep track of, to time or measure and then record on to a computer.  Therefore, a BIG thank you has to be sent out to those students and teachers who made this event run smoothly again this year.

For me, the most exciting events that are run on the day happen at the end, the House relays! This year proved to be no exception and each race was closely fought. In most cases only a few seconds separated the winners from second place, and in a few, only milliseconds! It was that close. Overall, Toroa managed to win 3 of the 8 races, more than any other House.

However, at the end of the day there has to be a winning House. This year saw a shift in power and saw Omimi take 1st place by quite a large margin, nearly 500 points! In second place came Clayton, closely followed by Toroa in 3rd. Last year's winners, Aoraki narrowly missed 3rd place by 40 points!

So, next year will see Omimi sitting by the finish line, but I know that they will have to fight just as hard as they did this year to keep it. Remember, every student wins points for their House, or loses them if they don’t attend their event. It’s not just the House with the fastest & strongest who has the best chance of winning. The House with the best team spirit, who encourages their team, supports them through their events and gets involved, also have a great chance of winning the day! We must have a great bunch of athletes as a massive 42 students were selected to go and represent our school in the Dunedin Schools' Athletics competition. Roll on 2014!