WIS Wins Sedan Chair Race!
On Sunday 30 October, West Island School participated in the annual Sedan Chair Race. West Island fielded a team of 11 runners however only 8 were allowed to run with one cheerleader/pace setter. The course which starts at Matilda International Hospital is 2.2km and has a mix of steep inclines and declines making it a challenging course to run, especially as the runners are carrying a sedan with two bags of rice weighing to a total of ten kilograms. West Island took part in the Serious Challenge – schools competing against Island School for top prize.
The race which starts at an incline and involves a sharp turn and a sprint up a hill is the start to this endearing race. West Island had a slow start to the race with Island managing to gain a fair distance over us. However, through some good gut running and some tough motivation we managed to overtake Island School and lead first into Homestead Road. As the road is very narrow we knew that Island wouldn’t be able to overtake us, which allowed us to slow down for a quick breather before we reached wider road.
As we had already made it half way through the course we started to believe we could really win the race; However, we knew that Island School wouldn’t give up so easily as they hadn’t made it this far just to lose. As we raced on one of the only flat portions of the race we had a few close encounters with Island as they tried to overtake us. As the team pushed through the pain and started on the last portion of the race, we knew that if we managed to keep up the pace and the momentum the trophy would be ours. That is exactly what we ended up doing and we went on to b beat Island School by 20 seconds.
On behalf of the team I would like to thank Mr Hewson for all his support throughout the race and leading up to it, giving up tips and motivation as well as pushing us to go to the morning training sessions and encouraging us to put everything we had in to them. If it wasn’t for all Mr Hewson’s hard work, we might not have been so successful, so once again – thank you!
Edgar Goldfeld
