Sport off to a racing start

On Saturday (September 20) the Under 15 and Under 11 cross country teams entered the SSSA(Shanghai Schools Sports Association) cross country event at YK Pao School.

The Under 11’s ran first over the 3km course. Louis Flint (yr7) led from the off and ran a strong and “gutsy” race to finish first,  closely followed by Will Canning(yr7) in 2nd  and Matteo Schisano(yr7) in 3rd.

In the Under 11 girls we ended up with only one runner, but that did not phase her at all, and Julia Johansen (yr6) ran a determined race to finish in an outstanding 2nd place!

The Wellington College U15 boys and girls then took to the now 5km course for their race.

For the girls it was an excellent sibling display with Luna Christensen(yr10) leading the girls race from the outset and running a spirited and determined race, only to be “piped” in to second in the last 40 metres. Tessa Christensen(yr8) also displayed the family spirit and determination to finish in and excellent 3rd place.

The outstanding performance of the day, however, has to go to Nathan Stassin(yr10) who blew, not only the under 15 field but the u19 and adult competition, running at the same time, away with a time of 17:26 for the 5km course. He led from the outset and dominated the race finishing a good 4-5 minutes at least, ahead of his nearest rivals. The best part of this, however, was not the margin of victory, nor the outstanding time he posted, but the fact that once Nathan had finished he gave himself barely enough time to catch his breath before running back down the road to a quieter part of the course to cheer and encourage his team mates/class mates/friends on and in some cases running with them to the finish. An act that truly encapsulates the Wellington Spirit.

We already have a very special team spirit here at Wellington and all the runners who ran on Saturday can be very proud of what they achieved and the fact that they all turned a race for individuals in to a team effort.

Saturday, 20th September, was a great day in Wellington sport. Thirty-two pupils represented the school at the Shanghai Swim League Time-trials. With barely more than three weeks of coaching, the team and their coaches, led by Alex Miladinovski, traveled to SAS Pudong and competed against far more established schools from all over Shanghai. Our pupils responded with a series of tremendous performances, many of them achieving personal best times.

There were several Wellington heat winners and a few were placed very high, on times, in their overall age groups. Tommaso Colombo from Year 5 came second overall in both the 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle races. A special cheer should be for the youngest team members, who managed to finish all of their races with correct technique and great effort.

On the same day, another 17 pupils competed in a series of Cross-Country races held by the Shanghai Schools Sports Association League at YK Pao School. Wellington pupils accumulated a remarkable seven top-3 places in the 3kms and 5 kms races. Nathan Stassin, from Year 10, won his race with an incredible time of 17:56, which was not only the fastest time for the U15s, but also in the U19 and adult races.