Secondary Sports Day – Sulug Sharks storm to victory in the return of Secondary Sports Day!

The anticipation and excitement had been steadily building over the weeks leading up to half term as students across secondary prepared to battle it out amongst their House Teams at the greatly anticipated Sports Day!

The dark clouds and previous night’s rain were a little concerning as set up began early in the morning at Penampang Stadium and the athletes began to trickle in and take their places in the stands. Students decked out in red, yellow and blue shirts with war paint on their faces brightened up the scene, while some energising tunes blasted out of the speakers. Some students took the opportunity to undertake a gentle warm-up around the track while others chose to conserve their energy and focus on their mental preparation up in the stands. 

It was a sea of colour as the students gathered under their House banners on the track in their House teams prior to the start of the day’s events. High Jump and Javelin events had already been carried out at school in the preceding week which meant there was already a leaderboard to start the day with Gaya in third place, Sapi in second and Sulug leading narrowly by 6 points with some two students having broken school records in the javelin to earn extra bonus points. 

Still, with so many events still to be carried out with running events from the 1500m down to the 60m dash as well as field events such as long jump, shot put, discus and standing triple jump, there were plenty of opportunities for the overall positions to change during the course of the day. Sapi and Sulug seemed to settle into a game of ‘leap frog’ as they regularly changed places at the top of the leaderboard. 

Mrs Renshaw and Mrs Anuar-Ghani were having to move as fast as the runners in the 60m Dash in order to keep up with the constant flow of podium visitors as students came to collect their medals and tritonic prizes. There were lots of beaming smiles and celebratory fist pumps on display to be captured by the social media team. As well as straining faces and muscles as students pushed themselves throughout the day.    

In the House Cheer competitions, Gaya had a point to prove. Narrowly trailing both Sapi and Sulug throughout the day in the overall scores, they potentially blew away even more of the peeling track at Penampang Stadium with their thunderous cheer to take the bonus 30 points over Sulug’s well-orchestrated NSEW performance. 

Thanks to the big crowd of parents who were clearly lured to Penampang by the promise of coffee being served by the PTA, we were able to make not just one parent team but two to take on the staff in an exhibition relay. The race had everything from somersaults at the starts, stumbles and most importantly some impressive displays of speed from both parents and staff alike. It was thanks to a blistering fast final leg by new comer Mr Clifford, securing victory for the staff and a rightful return to domination over the parents following some disappointing tug-of-war performances at the Primary Sport Mornings last year. 

Success in the relays can sometimes make the difference at the end of the day as to who will lift the trophy as points are worth double! The fastest runners who still had some energy left in the tank lined up around the track and there were some close and also extremely convincing victories in each of the races. 

The final event of the day, and as always the most popular and keenly contested event, the tug-of-war, was incredibly exciting. Mixed house teams took the strain as they attempted to pull their opponents across the line. Results were split very evenly with each House winning at least one of the 3 overall competitions. 

What was very impressive were the number of records broken throughout the competition. A total of 12 new records were set and as well new records were established for the Standing Triple Jump to carry forward to next year. 

Perhaps the sixth form students will claim they were already fatigued from the day’s events, or that their preparations were hampered by not yet having had access to the new weight training equipment at school. Whatever it might be, they were clearly outdone and outmuscled by the superfluous  strength of the staff team as they took that victory 3-0! Better luck next year boys and girls! 

Once all the events had been run (thrown and jumped!) and won, it was time for the final announcement to see who would take the trophy home this year. Had the Gaya pangolins managed to claw their way back to being on top in defence of their last title, or had Sapi or Sulug done enough to stay on top. 

In the end, the final results matched those at the start of the morning. Congratulations SULUG!!

The success of the day would not have been possible without the efforts of so many people. 

I am so grateful to our incredibly hard-working PTA group who in the weeks leading up to the event sourced donations from a range of different sponsors. Students not only walked away with medals for their various wins, but were also presented with bottles of Tritonic to help replenish the lost fluids and salts from their intensive exertions. I’m pretty sure we are very close to securing a highly lucrative sponsorship deal with Tritonic as a result of my continuous ‘product’ plugs’ throughout the day. 

Adding to the atmosphere were the many parents who dedicated time in their day to come and support the event. It was, in my opinion, certainly the most well-attended Secondary Sports Day in my memory. 

Secondary staff did a superb job of managing events, keeping track of students getting to their events and making sure that all the points were tallied and accounted for and of course rallying their respective House Teams throughout the day. If there had been a trophy presented for “Best House Support” it would have certainly gone to Mrs Colley for her boundless (bordering on threatening) show of support for her Sulug House. 

The House Leadership team, who are already demonstrating outstanding leadership skills mentored by Mr Watson did a phenomenal job in both the lead up to the event and on the day to ensure that their House Teams were prepared and performing on the day. Our younger Primary House Captains enjoyed being part of the day and were a tremendous help on the day to staff.

My biggest thanks and praise goes to the students themselves. Having missed this day from the calendar for the last few years, it was wonderful to see how much the students put into the day, not just in their own individual events, but also a collective team, looking out for one another by stepping in to fill events for friends, and the thunderous cheering and applause for those running down the finish straight whether in the final stages of the 1500m or urging their team mates across the line in closely contested sprints. 

We could not have asked for a better way to see competitive House sport on a whole school scale return and we are certainly eagerly anticipating the next event on the school calendar! 

FOBISIA NEWS!

U15 FOBISIA Games: Tuesday 1st-Saturday 5th November

Next Tuesday 1st November, our 22 strong squad of KIS Vipers will depart from KKIA enroute  to Thailand for the U15 FOBISIA Games. The team are both excited, and a little nervous at the prospect of three days of competition against students from other schools from Malaysia, Thailand and Nepal. However, I have no doubt that in spite of the challenges they will face, it will prove to be a tremendously enjoyable and rewarding experience and something they will remember long after they have left school. 

Please join me in wishing the following students all the best of luck in their competitions. 

Girls: Ana, Haylie, Pui San, Dasha, Keira, Sophie, Miky, Amanda, Dania, Isabella, Juah, Sofia, Yi Chen

Boys: Jayden, Leroy, Mathew, Tony, Sebastian, Ken Zi, Myko, Daniyal, Ian

We look forward to sharing with you some of the highlights of their trip with you in the coming weeks.  

U13 FOBISIA Games: Tuesday 19th-Saturday 23rd February

I am delighted to confirm that the U13 FOBISIA Games will now be running in February. 

Students will begin their training and preparations following the U15 FOBISIA Games in a couple of weeks! 

Monday 3:00-4:00pm – Basketball

Tuesday 3:00-4:00pm – Athletics/Fitness

Friday 3:00-4:00pm – Football

If students have already committed to other ECA clubs on these days then they are free to continue and then join the sessions in following the Christmas break in Term 2.

Primary FOBISIA Games: Tuesday 9th-Saturday 13th May

We are still accepting registrations for the Primary FOBISIA Games that will take place in May. 

The deadline for completing the Google Form here and also paying the RM1500 1st payment is Friday 11th November.

Fresh off the plane from the U15 FOBISIA Games Trip, I will be hosting an Information Morning for Parents on Monday 7th November at 7:40am in the MPR at school. I will be able to present some information about the Games in general and also about the venue where it will be hosted following the U15 FOBISIA Games. 

KIS CUP Returns!

Registrations for the KIS Football Cup for KS2 have now closed after a very positive response from students in Years 3-6. 

Games will start the week beginning Monday 14th November with teams and schedules published the week before. 

Miss Catriona Watt

Head of PE and Sport