School Sports Day

This week saw the annual event at this school of their sports day, it should have been held last month but for the third year in a row it had to be put back to a later date due to the weather. During September the weather in Wuhan had been mostly hot, fine and dry, but the management at this school it would appear does not check the long range weather forecast when they plan outdoor events.

So with the wet weather of late September, then the week long holiday for China’s National Day it was finally time for this event to take place. Like so many events in China, the racing, jumping and throwing could not begin until they had completed an opening ceremony, this entailed each class to parade around the running track, do a short presentation or performance in front of the main stand and the schools dignitaries before taking their place on the school playing field. The students then had to stand to attention while the Chinese National Anthem was played followed by a series of speeches.

Once all the official formalities were out of the way, the sports events could begin. The students compete individually in events up to 800 metres, as well as a 4 x 100 metres relay. The only field events are high jump, long jump and shot put. They also have multiple entrants in fun events such as team bunny hopping races and an extension to the three legged race with about 20 participants in each team (they fall like dominoes when the first person falls over).

The final event is the teachers 4 x 100 relay, each department enters a team with a wide variety of abilities on show, this race is well supported by the students as they see their favourite (or not) teachers competing against each other. It is good to see the students outside the classroom with some freedom and not having the constant pressure of learning that they feel every day.

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