From the Head of PE & Sport, 02.02.19
I’m glad we have Chinese New Year and a week off school to look forward to because it has been yet another week of action for KIS students on the sporting field, court and even alleyways!
On Sunday, students from Primary and Secondary were treated to a masterclass in Basketball from American Professional basketball coach Matthew Van Pelt. Matthew provided our younger Primary students with some fantastic tips and tricks to improve their dribbling and shooting skills. While the Secondary students worked hard on their ball handling, shooting and court movement. It was wonderful to see the students benefiting from such high level coaching and we are very thankful to Matthew for making the time to work with our students. All the students are hoping that we will get to see him again in the near future.
Also on the weekend, following on from their MSSD Badminton event, Kon Yi and Kon Han had no time to rest as they traveled to Keningau on Friday for the Sabah Closed Badminton Tournament. Kon Yi finished the tournament as 1st Runner Up in the Under 14 Boys doubles, as well as making it through to the round of 16 in the singles. In the Girls Under 14 competition, Kon Han finished as the 2nd Runner Up in the doubles competition and was eliminated in the Quarter Finals for the singles. As a result, both students have qualified to represent Sabah at the National Badminton Tournament that will be held in Penang on the 9th-13th March. Congratulations and best of luck to both Kon Yi and Kon Han as they prepare for this next challenge.
Traveling to Bangkok in Thailand, Timothy had an exceptional tournament at the Hainan Junior Golf Tour held at Bangkok Golf Club. Timothy was the Boys U15 Champion of the event, which is part of the Asia Pacific Junior Championship. Timothy is an aspiring golf pro and will be one of KIS’ leaders on the course at the FOBISIA Golf Invitational in March. Congratulations Timothy.
Action continued this week in MSSD events with students taking part in both Squash and Ten Pin Bowling.
Ling Qian was representing KIS in the Under 18 girls squash competition. After winning her 2 opening matches in Round 1 she progressed to the 2nd round of competition where she was placed in a 3 person round robin. After a narrow loss in her first match she bounced back to a comfortable win in her second match to progress to the semi-finals. On Wednesday morning, she had a very tough match against the 1st place winner from the other group which she unfortunately lost placing her in the 3rd/4th play off. A win in this match would have seen Ling Qian qualify for the next level of competition representing KK at the State Championships. Sadly, Ling Qian finished in 4th place after losing the playoff in a very close match 8-11, 9-11 and 9-11. Well done Ling Qian!
Also on Wednesday, Nicholas was in fine form at the MSSD Ten Pin Bowling Championships. Nicholas played 8 games throughout the day in the U15 Boys age group and managed a high score of 186 and an average of 161 placing him in 4th place for his age group. This result meant that Nicholas was successful in qualifying for the next level and will now represent KK at the Sabah State titles in a few weeks. A ‘striking’ achievement Nicholas, well done!
One of the many benefits of our involvement in MSSD, is that we are able to offer opportunities for students to compete in sports not normally offered at KIS in a competitive setting. Many of our students train and compete in a wide range of physical activities and sports outside of school and it is wonderful that they are able to participate in events such as these to challenge themselves and that we are able to support them achieve their best results and share in their successes.
FOBISIA Games
This term we have already seen our swimmers set off and return from their competition, and after CNY we will have three more teams travelling to Thailand and Kuala Lumpur to take part in FOBISIA events.
The U13’s FOBISIA team have been training hard since the start of term and will travel to Phuket on the 20th February to challenge other schools in swimming, athletics, basketball and football. While our KIS golfers will return to the wonderful golfing facilities of Black Mountain Resort in Hua Hin on the 11th March. For the first time, KIS will also have 2 students from Year 11 travelling to Kuala Lumpur for the FOBISIA Climbing invitational being hosted by Garden International School also in March.
Ms Catriona Watt
Head of PE and Sport
