Zuka Ashraf Ali (Class 6A) “Athletics tournament”. You’ve probably heard these words floating around the school these past months. From 11th- 15th September the Athletics Association of Maldives held the 20th Milo Interschool Athletics Championship, right here in Male’. 32 schools from around the Maldives participated, and our school was among them. There was a selection where the coaches took the timings and then our school provided coaching for the students who got selected. There were practices for 20 days and we worked long and hard for 1 and ½ hours, every single day. The practices were tiring, but the coaches kept on giving us words of encouragement to keep on going. As the tournament was getting closer and closer, the truth was slowly dawning on us. We were going to be
competing against the fastest athletes in Maldives! The coaches trained us harder, more effectively, without missing even one practice session. They told us they had faith in us and to just try our best. We started the tournament with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and ended it the same way. The Under 13 boys from our school received an award for best team from their age group and Masoon received an award for the ‘Best Athlete’ in his age group! The tournament included hectic and unpredicted weather, a lot of laughing and cheering, a little bit of crying, a lot of skipping school and immense support from all the parents and coaches, and it was definitely worth it. Winning and losing are all part of the game. Each and every athlete showed an example of true sportsmanship and tried their best until the very end. I hope that next year will be even more successful than this one!