Sports Day 2021
On the 2nd June, Concord College had its annual Sports Day – an event that everyone had looked forward to, hoping to experience some of the missed normality from the pre-Covid times.
Training sessions had been organised during the weeks prior to the event and it’s safe to say that competition and spirit were fierce. Apart from the usual competitiveness, our Houses (Teresa, Gandhi, Mandela and Pankhurst) were also motivated by the fact that they had a very similar number of points, meaning that whoever won Sports Day would also win the House Cup. So, with the finish line in sight, our Houses were now pushing as hard they could.
I am truly proud of all our competitors and how hard everybody worked, considering that many had only recently finished exams and so were looking forward to some well-deserved rest. Jacob said before his 100-metre sprint: “I am confident, but it’s going to be a hard race with many strong opponents”. He then went on to beat the school men’s 100-metre record with a time of 11.34 seconds. However, people were not as impressed by this achievement as this year, breaking records was the norm. Our athletes broke around 27 records – hardly a modest number.
Our Lower School also shone this year, swiftly adapting to the Concordian competition – Bulut (Lower School Teresa House Captain in Form 5) came first with a distance of 10.87 metres in shotput to the delight of his House.
Although this year’s Sports Day was extremely busy, we missed the participation of the spectators who were not allowed to be here (outside of their yeargroup ‘bubbles’) this year due to Covid-19 safety. Mrs Johnson jokingly said that she was “actually scared when Duncan broke the sound barrier in his race” but also added “I miss the whole school being here and the support they bring. I want to see us appreciating each other like we did during the pre-Covid times.” We want to give a huge “thank you” to all the staff involved in organising the event whether it was training students, catering the athletes, organising and delivering the event, or tending to the wellbeing of the competitors.
– Sixth Form Marketing Team
Sports Day 2019
May 29th 2019… Four ‘houses’ gathered on Hall Meadow, at the front of Concord College, each one with the House Cup in their sights. The athletes from each house readied themselves. The runners made their warm-up rounds, the javelins and shots were readied, and all the while spectators looked on with anticipation, waiting for the starting gun, the whistle, the call, that would set the events in motion. As javelins pierced the crisp air and the sprinters bolted across the field, the atmosphere could only be described as electrifying, as the energy from the crowd was felt by each and every person present. Wild yells and cries of encouragement, joy, and frustration all merged into a melting pot of excitement.
The events of the day included javelin, shot put, running races of various distances – both sprinting and long distance, relays, and tug-of-war. All the while, flags of the various house colours could be seen fluttering over a sea of red, green, yellow and blue shirts. From the faces on the athletes, you could tell that everyone was giving it their all, and this competitive spirit resulted in some high-octane and thrilling action in almost all of the events. A vast majority of the events were also extremely close, with some of the races even having highly controversial or unexpected results as to who won.
This intense competition was also reflected by the overall results for the day, with Pankhurst just being able to dominate Sports Day overall by just about a hair’s breadth. However, the overall House Cup victors for 2019 turned out to be Mandela. The reaction from the Mandela students was unlike anything I personally have ever seen. However, being a Mandela boy myself, the unbridled ecstasy was completely and utterly relatable. Regardless of who won and lost that day however, the perfect balance of competition and sportsmanship shown made Sports Day 2019 a truly unforgettable experience.
Luke – 6.1