WIS at Division 1 Hong Kong Schools Cross Country Championships
History was made on the 21 November 2016 as West Island School boys team became 1st runners up and, for the first time ever, the girls team became HK schools cross country champions. This phenomenal success did not come over night. For many, training for the Division 1 championships began over a year ago when individual goals were set and a desire to make this elite team started to burn bright.
Cross country is tough! Success in running really comes from leaving your comfort zone and learning to love your discomfort zone. It requires both physical and mental toughness as often the only person you are competing against in training is yourself. Life skills such as self-discipline and motivation are essential. Through the determination of our runners and the commitment of numerous staff West Island runners achieved something that was once only a dream.
Cross country is actually a team sport. A team’s score at the championships is determined by tallying the place numbers of its first six finishers of an eight person team. Hence, in cross-country, all athletes are incentivised to run their best possible race and to fight for every place until the very end. The consequence of this scoring dynamic is that mid-pack runners become just as crucial—if not more so—to a team’s final standing as the superstars up front. Congratulations to all runners who were selected for this elite team and also to the runners who this year did not get selected but who challenged for places and therefore indirectly raising the teams standard.
Top 10 individual runners and top 4 teams in each age group receive medals. Each team score is then added to determine the overall cross country school champion. For all runners times and finishing positions please go to: http://www.hkssf-hk.org.hk/hk/sec/events/cc.htm and scroll down to results Division 1.
Overall school place:
WIS Girls Team: Girls HK Schools Champions
WIS Boys Team: 1st runners up
WIS team results and top 10 finishers:
C grade girls team 2nd (Seychelle Rowe 4th, Erin Deayton 10th)
C grade boys team 2nd (Swiss Duangthip 4th, Rafe Man 5th, Zacchary Ishida 10th)
B grade girls team 2nd (Jasmin Drew 2nd, Isabelle Brantingham 7th , Alison Macalpin 10th)
B grade boys team 6th
A grade girls team 1st (Erin Brown 1st, Amy Tao 2nd, Shreya Rane 3rd, Helen Doran 9th)
A grade boys team 3rd (Matthew Tan 3rd, Clayton Gibb 8th)
Well done to all the runners on such marvelous results and thank you to the PE faculty for all their support and coaching.
