From the Head of PE & Sport, 23.03.19

From the Head of PE & Sport, 23.03.19

FOBISIA Climbing

Last week from Wednesday 13th –Saturday 16th March two students from Year 11; Aleksis and Pascal traveled to Kuala Lumpur to compete at the FOBISIA Climbing Invitational Event. This was the first time KIS has sent students to the event and we hope it will be an event we can continue to attend with growing numbers in the future. Below is a report written by Aleksis about their experience at the event.

“In October of 2018, I found out about climbing FOBISIA through a few students from another international school in Kuala Lumpur. Soon after I got back to Kota Kinabalu, I was notified by the head of our PE department Ms. Watt about the competition, and I knew I had to go.

The competition consisted of 2 variations of climbing, bouldering, and top rope. Bouldering involves climbing to the top of a 3-6 meter route, but in this case, the routes ranged from 3-4 meters in height. Top rope, is a form of climbing where the participant wears a harness and ties themselves with a rope while the bilayer holding the climber’s weight from below for them not to fall. Boulder moves include balance and dynamic strength; while top rope includes more endurance.

On Wednesday 13th of March Pascal and I accompanied by his Dad flew out to Kuala Lumpur for the competition. We arrived at the hotel at 4:15pm, and after checking into our rooms, we headed straight to Camp5 to try out a few routes.

The next day we woke up at 6:30 am for breakfast at the hotel and went straight to the Camp5 for the U17 bouldering comp. I was greeted by 118 other climbers from dozens of different Nationalities and many different schools. We started climbing at 10:00am, and had 2 hours to complete the five designated boulder routes for our age group. The three people who finished the most routes in the least amount of times and the shortest period would advance into the finals.

I was one of only two competitors to complete all of the routes which brought me into the finals with two opponents which I made friends with. I placed 2nd overall in bouldering, just losing the gold medal by a single move.

On the following day, it was the U17 top rope competition where I on-sighted (finishing a route without falling on your first try) all 7 of the qualification climbs. Again, I qualified for the finals but this time with Pascal where I ended up placing 2nd and Pascal placing 3rd. I was extremely disappointed by the outcome, however, it has now only motivated me to train more. So much that Pascal and I continued climbing at the end of the competition.

After the competition we headed to Garden International School for the Gala dinner. During this period, I managed to make friends with many kids from Uplands International School from Penang. Overall, I enjoyed my experience at the Climbing FOBISIA competition because of the multiple opportunities I had to compete, learn from other climbers and make new friends. The new people I met even invited me over to Penang for some outdoor rock climbing which goes to show the friendly environment I was in.”

FOBISIA News

It certainly has been a very busy FOBISIA schedule in Term 2 with; Swimming, U13’s FOBISIA Games, Golf and Climbing all taking place. The final FOBISIA Games competition is scheduled early in Term 3 where our largest team to date of 26 students from across Year 5 and Year 6 will be traveling to Thanyapura for the Primary FOBISIA Games from the 4th-8th May. The team have demonstrated an outstanding level of dedication to their training throughout the term in the 4 sports of swimming, athletics, football and t-ball and are certainly very excited about the event!

This school year we have seen participation numbers in FOBISIA events far exceed last years numbers, with a grand total of 84 students attending the 6 different events compared with 55 in 2017-2018.

This growth in participation and also the improved performances at competitions are a result of the hard work and dedication carried out on a weekly basis by members of the PE Department and other staff across the school. A special mention to Miss Westaway and Mr. Green who have been instrumental in working with

the Stingrays and Primary FOBISIA team groups throughout the year to assist the students in achieving their best performances.

Our involvement in these competitions and events also wouldn’t be possible without the ongoing support of parents. In Term 3 we will already be beginning the recruitment for next academic years 2019 U15 FOBISIA Games.

If you have any questions about FOBISIA events or other sporting matters, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Miss Catriona Watt

Head of PE and Sport