MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS ALCOHOL EDUCATION FENCING

On 1 March, Year 8 had alcohol education, where you learn about the effects of alcohol on the human body. Some of the things we were told about alcohol are that when you drink alcohol it goes through your bloodstream and goes to your brain and when you drink alcohol and get drunk it can do things to different parts of your brain depending on where it goes. Some of the things it can cause are difficulty controlling your balance, judgement on where things are, and your memory and speech. We were also told about vaping, and the danger of it, as it contains high levels of nicotine. We were also told that vaping companies make vapes look colourful and giv them lots of different flavours to trick buyers into thinking they are healthy and fun. Overall alcohol education was a very engaging and fun presentation about alcohol and vaping.

During the 2016 Olympic Games, the sport fencing was on the television. I was immediately interested, I asked my mum to start learning the sport. As any other sport, you trained then started competing in small events. Up until early 2020, I was competing in novice and state competitions, with the rare occasions of a trip to Sydney to compete at a national level. As COVID hit and we had to go into lockdown, many sports were impacted. When COVID eased and activities resumed, I started my training again though I found it difficult to get back on track. As the first competition of the new year, I didn’t expect much going into it. The Australian Youth Circuit No.1 was a good way to start the year. I thought there were a lot of good fencers out there competing on the day, and I’m very pleased to finish 3rd overall.

By Gino Yao