By Mélanie Bell, year 10
The LGB community was very excited to, after two years of Covid restrictions, finally be able to host the Secondary School Sports Day on the 31st of March 2022. Despite the weather not being ideal, this event enabled students and staff to build stronger bonds and have an enjoyable day through athletic activities. The PTA was also able to sell baked goods to support Ukrainian refugees.
Both faculty and student sentiment was universally positive. Spanish teacher Mrs. Wilson observed, “I think Sports Day is great for team spirit.” Year 10 student Margherita Cocchiglia opined, “We do sports to improve our collaboration, leadership and team-building skills. We also get to be outside and do fun activities”. Another year 10 student, Melissa Deriche, chimed in that “Sports definitely brings people together and it’s just really fun!” French and Latin teacher Mme Freeman enlightened students on the Latin importance of athletics: “Do you know the proverb ‘Mens sana in corpore sano’? It means ‘A sound mind in a sound body.’ This is very important and Sports Day definitely promotes this message.”
Sports Day consisted of several activities: volleyball, basketball, short tennis, a 100-metre sprint, a 1 kilometre cross country run, long jump, football, and sprint finals for the 8 fastest boy and girl runners of each year. The year 9 sprint winners were Nicolas Griego for the boys and Aisha Van Dalen for the girls. The winners in year 10 were Gigi Braat for the girls and Aryo Azimo for the boys. The winners in year 11 were Leander Rupp for the boys and Gaia Sanchez Santos for the girls. The year 12 winners were Dementij Kuraszov for the boys and Gaia Braat for the girls. The year 13 winners were Héloïse Hughes, with a school record-breaking time of 12.94 seconds, for the girls and Loic Yvri Oddin for the boys. The winning mentor classes this year were Mrs. Fahy’s year 9 class, Mrs. Wilson’s year 10 class, Mrs. Sheppard’s year 11 class, and a tie between Mr. Guhirwa and Mr. Newman’s year 12 mentor classes. Congratulations to all the participants and mentor classes!
Students look forward to next year’s events, and an informal poll put forth some additional suggestions for next year’s sports: table tennis, American football, gymnastics, dance, biking, rugby, curling, bowling, and high jump, to name a few.
“I think Sports Day is important because it unifies mentor classes and the whole school in general. It makes everyone feel like they are in a family. Participating in sports activities is very good for a person’s health so I think that Sports Day inhibits all the good qualities of the school in one!” said Mathilde Thorens, year 11.
