Lower School Tag Rugby Tournament

As the scorching sun shone in the sky, Concord’s four ‘houses’ gathered to compete for the Tag Rugby Trophy. Two teams from each house entered, all who had practiced beforehand, to prove that they are all able of winning the event.

The first two houses – Gandhi and Teresa – prepared each of their teams to start off the tournament. As the first whistle was blown, the teams clashed together in a bid to ‘bring the trophy home’. During the event, all the teams played each other and there were many interesting plays and excitement that ensued. Teresa, Pankhurst, Gandhi and Mandela all played their very best and were promising contenders to win the trophy…

At the end of the afternoon, it was time for the prizes to be handed out. As the prize-giving ceremony commenced, everyone was on edge, as the same question flashed across everyone’s minds: “Who won?” – As the names were read out, it was deemed in the end that Pankhurst won the trophy, with Teresa coming 2nd, Gandhi 3rd and Mandela 4th. As the trophy was given out, a round of applause was heard from the crowd of students all of houses. Despite the competition and everyone being so into the game, at the end of the day, we were all still happy for the winners, and the sportsmanship never died down throughout.

Leo – F4

Concord’s first ‘Inter-School Cross Country’ event

On 17th May 2018, the cross country team competed in the ‘Shropshire Young Athlete – Cross Country’ competition. Sushant and Mark ran in the U15 3km race, Jasper in the U19 5km race and Liza, Wing Hin and myself in the U17 4km race, as a team. As it was Concord’s first ever inter-school cross country event, we were proud to represent the school and show off our running ability to the others. Personally, as I hadn’t run further than 150m since June, my goal was simple – not to walk the whole race. After doing some warm-up activities and stretching, we were ready to race.

In the beginning of the U17 competition, I ran alongside Liza and Wing Hin. I was feeling quite good and the weather was perfect for a run. I paced myself and was enjoying it but unfortunately, it didn’t last long. I started to get a stitch on the left side of my waist after running 1.5km. So, I slowed my pace and controlled my breathing. I had hoped I could run through it for the duration of the race, but it was so painful that I had to walk at times. Looking at the competitors passing by and running further and further wasn’t a nice scene to look at… But, despite the awful pain I was experiencing, I crossed the finish line having jogged and walked my way round in around 24 minutes.

After some empathy from teachers and friends, and comfort from Liza’s jokes, the stitch started to fade away. Then we got up and cheered for the boys. They appeared to have an enjoyable race as they were running with smiles on their faces. At the end, they also had the stamina to sprint and complete the race with impressive results.

Overall, the whole cross-country team had a delightful experience. For me, having a stitch during a race wasn’t fun and stopped me running to my best potential. However, hopefully, I will have another opportunity to run with my teammates and enjoy the racing again sometime soon.

Jennifer Lam – F4