Sports Day -- the report

Annual Sports Day 25 March 2007.

The condition of the field was horrendous! It had been raining a lot the past few days, the kids were happily sloshing around in the mud, some like Amjad chose to go barefoot all the way.

But the weather itself that day was very cooperative, alhamdulillah. Sunny without being too hot. Perfect if the events had gone on schedule and finished by 12; as it was, they dragged on a bit that it all ended at 1:30, and it was sweltering hot.

The organization, whatever there was of it, was bad. We're probably pros at attending sports days what tagging along with mummy and daddy all over segamat in addition to our own school experiences, and this one by far was the most disorganized that we went to. We've never been to the school's sports day before as so this was quite a shock.

Get all the bad things out of the way first so that Ibu can really Brag :) :) :)

(warning -- big time bragging ahead!)

Amjad participated in 3 events -- 100m; 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 (all the events were organized by year and gender).

His first event was 100m. After a false start (duh! teacher who was responsible for the flag signal didn't know what he was supposed to do and was given a crash course there and then by the sports' secretary), he dashed up to finish 3rd.


Their Blue House had the same team for both relay events. Amjad was first runner, next was Syazmi, then Azim and then Faris. Poor Syazmi was still so confused not quite sure whether he was in the team, so when they called for the students to go to the middle of the field, he was still going around looking for his friend. (where was the house teacher who was supposed to manage the team???)

4x100. Amjad faltered at the start, but managed to keep up with the rest of the pack, passed over to Syazmi, who really ran and narrowed the gap with the other two teams, passed over to Azim, who went like the wind and luck was with them when the red team runner slipped, passed over to Faris who kept the second position until the finishing line -- he was only one step behind the green team!

The close silver finish got them -- and everyone else -- excited. After all, blue has traditionally been the worst team, now there was even a glimmer of hope of getting a gold medal.

And won the gold medal they did, and with such excitement! They were already pretty tired by then. The house teacher/manager did a good job trying to keep the students motivated (finally!). It was blazing hot by then, he patted water down their face, put in some encouraging words etc etc. Amjad was ahead of the pack pretty much most of the way but lost the lead in the last 50 m. Syazmi started out forgetting to go into the inner lane, and most some time there, but made up for it in the last 50 m and kept the second position. Azim again went like the wind, and managed to close the gap with the red team. Faris kept up with the lead, but stayed a little behind, until the last stretch. He somehow got a second wind and dashed the last 15 m to clinch the lead -- much to the blue supporters' excitement.

The kids' achievement made up for the disorganization of the event :).

Amjad and Syazmi, I take back all my thoughts about you guys being 'kaki bangku.' In addition to talent, the spirit that you both showed was just awesome!

WONDERFUL WONDERFUL JOB BOYS!!!!

p/s will post the pictures here later.