Sports Update

FACULTY OF SPORT

Sports Update and Initiatives

Wow – what a term of action it’s been, despite the COVID-19 threat! Our sports programme has continued to deliver and we were all excited to be able to complete the major school-wide events including Swimming Sports Days, Senior School House Sports Day, Cross Country and the Year 7 sports afternoon. There was 100% engagement from all students in attendance.

The 2022 summer sports season has been another successful one with some great results overall. Leading the way were our Premier Boys’ Tennis team, who placed 5th in Auckland in the top boys’ league. The team, led by Finn Burridge, played some amazing Tennis and enjoyed immensely the new indoor courts at Tūrama. Some of the matches were outstanding and many close tie-break games were played. The feedback about Tūrama from all involved has been most complimentary. Utilising the new facility, Head of Tennis Amanda Stuart organised the high-performance Tennis programme with Lavie Academy. This has been a positive addition to the Tennis programme and will ensure that our young players moving up through the grades have the opportunity to be the best they can be. Congratulations to our A3 Girls’ team, who placed 2nd in their grade, and to the A3 Boys, who placed 3rd. A special mention to our Auckland Secondary Schools Intermediate Girls’ doubles champions Muhan Cui and Mina Zhang and in the Senior Boys, our Auckland Secondary Schools runners-up Finn Burridge and Robbie King. Finn was a semi-finalist in the boys’ singles also. In Cricket, our 1st XI Boys were in fine form – winning 5 out of 7 games to sit in the top three of the 1B Auckland Secondary Schools competition. Their season continues in Term 4 and we hope that they can continue to play well and make the final. Alex Godward was the overall top run-scorer in the grade. Fine achievements indeed. Our Water Polo teams continued the positive results from the term with both our Premier Girls' and Premier Boys' teams winning Silver medals at the NZ Schools National Division Two Championships, played during the second week of the school holidays, with the girls in Tauranga and the boys in Rotorua. Both finals were nail-biting matches with the girls losing by 1 goal (7-8) and the boys going down in a penalty shoot-out, 9-10.

The Yachting team placed 3rd in the NZ National Schools’ Harken Keelboat Regatta in what was an incredibly close contest. The Kristin team, skippered by Mattias Coutts, did extremely well in some challenging conditions against the best in NZ. All the crew will be back next year and are already planning for an improved result! Another powerful addition has been the continued advancement in our strength and conditioning programme run by Andreas Fossum, our on-site “Playing strength and conditioning specialist. Both sport and keeping active helps you to our Water Polo teams have been dedicated to early-morning starts in the fitness centre working through a programme overcome challenges... to build their strength and conditioning. always give 100% no matter Our Hockey and Basketball teams, as the situation or how you feel... if you can only give 50% well as our Year 9 Academy and Year 10 Sports Studies students, are part of this extensive programme also, to then give it all that 50!” develop and progress all students’ levels of strength and fitness. This will ensure ELIZA MCCARTNEY longevity in sports and help to reduce injuries and enhance performance. This year we ran our own Touch module here at Kristin. Staff from across the school were involved, along with Middle and Senior School students. Throughout the term, games were arranged with teams made up of the different schools and staff. Organised and managed by Dave Green, ably supported by Niall Thompson, each Tuesday’s match ensured all those involved enjoyed a fun-filled action-packed hour of both Touch and Rippa Rugby. It was certainly a fun activity overall and great to see both young and old showing their paces. Special mention to Mr Nathan Calvert, who showed ‘more toe than a Roman sandal’, burning up the grass on many an occasion and leaving defenders in his wake. Rob Taylor