A Great Week at The AIMS Games!
A Great Week at The AIMS Games!
September 19, 2019 at 10:32 AM
What a fantastic week of sporting competition for our Year 7 and 8 students at the AIMS Games in Tauranga last week. Attending one of the biggest sporting events in the southern hemisphere, with a record 11,500 athletes taking part in 23 sports, representing over 365 schools from around New Zealand and the Pacific, this was a non-stop week of sporting competition!
Our three eligible schools, the Middle College, Girls’ School and Boys’ School, each entered competitors in a range of team sports, including basketball, football, futsal, hockey, netball, waterpolo and hip hop, as well as entering students in individual codes such as swimming, tennis, badminton, table tennis, yachting, mountain biking and gymnastics. In some instances, competitors from the Boys’ School and Girls’ School joined with those from the Middle College to form the strongest combined squads.
Saint Kentigern has some very competitive swimmers and with the swimming results from the finals tallied across the campuses, their combined points contributed to Saint Kentigern being named as the top school in the country for swimming, winning gold medals for the team. Middle College student, Alex Campion won gold for overall first place in the girls’ event, breaking a record in the process in the Girls’ 13 100m Individual Medley. Boys’ School student, James Crosbie won bronze for the third overall boy and Harry Klouwens and Mark Galloway, also from the Boys’ School joined with James and Alex to win the 200m Medley Relay. Well done swimmers!
Middle College students Darcy McDonald, Meredith Webber and Connor Eccles each earned gymnastic success. Meredith won silver in the girls’ Open Junior Advanced category with Darcy just behind in bronze place and Connor won bronze in the Open Men’s Trampolining, bringing three more medals to the overall tally.
Success continued on the tennis courts for all three schools. Lev Gorb from the Boys’ School earned bronze in the singles with fellow students, Max Richardson and Eddie Biss, combining for the doubles to win silver for the Boys’ School. The points from all three boys went towards them winning gold as the top boys’ tennis team at the competition.
Likewise, the girls did well with Annabelle Loutit from the Middle College combining with Chelsea Wijntjes from the Girls’ School to win bronze in the girls’ tennis doubles. The singles points from Annabelle and Jasmine Tran from the Girls’ School were combined to earn them silver as the second placed team in the competition.
Another gold was scored in table tennis by Middle College student, Joanna Yang who won the girls’ singles. Joanna joined with Joy Xie to earn silver in the girls’ doubles. In badminton, the Middle College combination of Carlos Li and Eric Wu won silver in the boys’ doubles.
Whilst none of the team codes placed, there was much to enjoy and learn for these students.
Whilst coming home with medals is fantastic, the AIMS Games, for these younger students, is as much about taking part and experiencing a taste of competition away from home, which was a first for many. It has been reported back that our students were exemplary in their behaviour and it didn’t go unnoticed. Well done for sporting our blue and white with pride!
Our sincere thanks to the staff and parents who accompanied the students for their time away.
