Mowden Hall Olympics

The first weekend of the school year saw the inaugural Mowden Hall Olympics. Following extensive practice and preparation throughout Saturday the event was officially opened at the Opening Ceremony in the theatre at noon on Sunday. This extravaganza rivalled Beijing in glitz, razamatazz, artistic flair and hardwork and endeavour, only falling short in budgetry terms and in the lack of any mime artists! The teams from Japan and Hawaii made particularly good use of their time slots with imaginative and hugely fun presentations.

The events themselves started after an excellent pre games lunch in the athletes village (dining room!). First up were the Olympic Relays. These involved the entire squads and ranged from dribbling rugby balls with hockey sticks to shooting baskets and balancing balls. Every aspect of the Olympic motto of 'faster, higher, stronger' was examined in one event with Jamaica running out narrow winners. Table tennis and table football came next and both saw tightly fought competitions. The Olympic Challenge section came next with a variety of physical and mental challenges which really stretched all participants.

Olympic teaser: A large rock sits in a rowing boat in a swimming pool. If the rock is pushed out of the boat and into the pool does the water level in the pool rise, fall or stay the same, and why?

The action then switched to the Mowden Ice Cube for the keenly anticipated swimming gala. Once again all team members contributed to a highly successful and very close event. The final events were the 5 a side football competition and the Olympic quiz. The nature of the mottos chosen by the various teams to represent their Olympic ideals (the tie break in the quiz) proved that the children had really taken on board what the day, and the Olympics, were really about. Baron Pierre de Coubertin would have been thrilled!

Italy, Hawaii and Japan all won their fair share of gold medals but in the end Jamaica just squeezed through to top the medal table. The headmaster handed out no fewer than 37 medals before declaring the games of the first Mowden Olympiad officially closed. It had been a memorable day with many tremendous performances but most importantly it had been a day when the taking part really had been the most important thing.

T.O.S.