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Huili’s first sports day filled with fun and fierce but friendly competition

07 May 2019

Friday 26th April saw the whole of the Huili community enjoy our very first sports day. To say that the pupils were ready for it would be an understatement, as the anticipation had been building for weeks, if not months.

Leading up to the big day, pupils had been training hard for their chosen events, with the older ones especially spending lots of classroom time learning about the scoring qualifications and specific techniques needed to succeed in various track and field events. I think that it was very easy to sense a fierce yet friendly competitive spirit among the pupils throughout the course of the day. This feeling is right at the heart of what competitive sport should be all about, so it was a blessing to see so much evidence of it; pupils were giving every event their best effort, while at the same time respecting their opponents and cheering them on.

Let the games begin

The morning quickly went by in an energetic whirl as pupils from across the year groups put their training to excellent use, showing outstanding sporting prowess in a series of challenging track and field events. Remarkable team and personal performances were seen in the sprinting, relay, javelin, shot put, high jump and long jump events. Everywhere you looked, you could see demonstrations of our pupils’ admirable dedication and growing technical skill.

Then in the afternoon our younger pupils (those in grades 1-3) energetically threw themselves into the wide range of classic sports day events laid on for them. They very much enjoyed the light-heartedness of the egg and spoon race, bean bag throw, skipping race, sack race and many other events, while still competing as robustly as possible, of course. House competitions also took place in the afternoon, with pupils in grades 4-6 scoring points for their respective houses in the table tennis, football, basketball and dance events. Pupils were required beforehand to sign up for the competitions they wanted compete in, so they had plenty of time to practise in the weeks leading up to sports day.

Competing for the top spots

Sports day is about everyone having fun together as much as it is about demonstrating sporting ability, so it was fitting that the day ended with everyone crowding around to cheer on those participating in house tug-of-war. I think it would be fair to say that all of the pupils ended the day exhausted but happy, content that they had given their very best effort in every event they tried.

After combing through the results and carefully adding up all of the points involved, I can reveal that Li House was the overall house winner by the narrowest of margins. As you can see for yourselves, the closeness of the point differences between all of the houses just shows how hard every pupil tried this year: Li: 1955 points Xian: 1934 points Hui: 1758 points De: 1617 points

Honouring the winners

The prizegiving process was spread over the morning exercise sessions on Tuesday 30th April and Thursday 2nd May, with parent representatives in attendance. The individual events winners took to the podium to receive their gold, silver and bronze medals, while ribbons were awarded to the winners of the team games. This built up to the awarding of the coveted house sports day trophy, which was taken up by Li’s smiling house captain Nini Li. I am extremely proud of the success of the school’s first sports day, and even more proud of the pupils exemplary attitude throughout the event. This was a chance for the Huili community to come together in celebration of the joy and importance of sport, and the pupils acquitted themselves very well indeed. Not only did they put their prior learning to effective use while competing, they did so while displaying the kind of values we venerate at Huili: showing respect for your peers even when they are your opponents, honouring a sense of fair play, and persevering in the face of adversity. I hope that you all enjoyed sports day as much as I did. I would like to extend a big thank you to every member of staff, as they helped immeasurably as line keepers, referees, race starters and more. Thanks and congratulations also to go all of the Huili pupils. Well done to you all, and remember – it is never too early to start training for next year!

Huili School Shanghai

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