After an action-packed opening day at the BSME U15 Games 2018, the athletes returned for day two and didn’t disappoint. Today saw one of the highlights of any BSME event take centre stage – the athletics.
St Christopher’s School Bahrain and British International School Cairo were the victorious schools on the first day, taking the honours in girls’ football and boys’ volleyball respectively. Friday was an altogether different day with individual competition at the forefront and no less than twenty-two gold, silver and bronze medals up for grabs.
The field events in store were long jump, triple jump, high jump, turbo javelin and shot-put. On the track it was 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 4x100m relay and 4x200m relay.
Starting with the shot-put, British International School Jeddah (hopefully with a better night’s sleep!), were in imperious form. They took both gold and silver in the girls competition with Sarya Rangi edging Yasmine Damer to top spot. They also came out on top in the boys event with Daveed Harb scoring the day’s top score with a massive 10.94m.
Elsewhere on the field, Ines Charvet of British International School Abu Dhabi (BISAD) was a star performer with victory in the long jump, seeing off team-mate Tasmin Sangster in second. She followed that up with another gold medal in the high jump, to round off a fantastic individual performance.
Sara Kifayatullah of The British School Al Khubairat (BSAK) was the winner of girls' javelin with a remarkable 25.10m, comfortably clear of the chasing pack. Her team-mate Nicole Mensah was victorious in the triple jump, securing another gold medal for the Abu Dhabi school.
The BSAK success continued into the boys with Khaled Abu Amarah securing gold in the long jump; Bas Halling topped the charts in the high jump to clinch gold for BISAD; Aidan Spencer of Brighton College (BCAD) came out on top in the javelin; and Ricccardo Ianni of British International School Cairo (BISC) secured Egypt's first field medal of the day with triple jump victory.
Moving onto the track, there were a few individual performances to savour. David Mayne of BCAD was unbeatable in the short sprints, seeing off all comers in the 100m and 200m. There was a similar success story in girls, with Tyra Jagtiani of BCAD clinching 100m victory. She also impressed in the 200m, but was pipped at the post by Neve Woodward of BSAK who secured gold. Woodward’s day went from strength to strength as she doubled up with another victory in the 400m. The final girls individual accolade went to Olivia Hunter of British School Muscat (BSM), taking the title back to Oman.
Omar Attia of BISC secured another gold medal for BISC with a fine run in the 400m. However, arguably the story of the day was the boys 800m gold medal secured by Christian Perry. Parry had finished on the podium twice before, narrowly mising out, but made 2018 his year after recovering from a slow start to storm over the finish line. A true story of grit, determination and hard work, values the BSME Games showcases in abundance.
The day came to an exciting conclusion with the relays. Al Yasmina Academy of Abu Dhabi showed their team spirit to clinch their first gold medal of the games with victory in the 4x200m. And BSM took the honours in the final boys event of the day, 4x100m. In the girls 4x200m Ines Carvet and Tasmin Sangster continued their amazing form from the field and were joined by Janet Smyth and Mia Seesink to complete the victorious BISAD team. The very last race of the day saw Brighton College add to a terrific day of track and field with girls 4x100m victory.
An unbelievable day of sporting action and it sets us up perfectly for tomorrow’s grand finalé. Boys football and girls netball are in store and anything could happen in one of the most evenly contested BSME games in recent memory. Good luck to everyone participated and stay tuned to all of the action on GYS.