Let the Games Begin!
Let the Games Begin!
August 09, 2016 at 6:24 PM
‘The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.’
While the world’s best athletes are competing for Olympic glory in Rio, our own future Olympians put their sporting prowess to the test today when the Boys’ School held their own Junior School Mini-Olympics, complete with an ‘official’ opening ceremony.
Divided into countries from the five continents, the boys marched proudly behind their flag bearers as they did a circuit of the Junior School past a crowd of camera-ready onlookers! Our athletes in Rio may be competing in balmy, tropical conditions but we breed them tough in New Zealand – it was a brisk 6 degrees when the boys first stepped outside in their sports attire!
The Olympic flag was carried in, the ‘flame’ was lit and it was left to the student hosts to commence proceedings. MCs for the morning, Cooper Thomas and Jaden Lee, gave a brief history of the games before Frankie Fitness took the Olympic Oath in English, followed by Edward MacCulloch, reading it most beautifully in French! Under a Grecian Arch - of cardboard boxes – Mr Cassie declared the games open!
It was then down to the serious business of competing for medals, with mentoring from Year 8! The Boys’ School may now well hold world records for paper plate discus, noodle javelin, wheat bag shot put and most artistic roly polies!
And the winners? In bronze place, the USA and in silver, Australia. Most fittingly, the gold medal went to a country unlikely to take the lead in Rio but one most worthy of recognition – Greece stormed ahead to win our own Mini-Olympics!
