Sport is alive and well at Wellington

Simon Shand

Director of Sport

Staying safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately meant putting sport on a near 18-month hiatus at Wellington. But this year, restrictions are carefully being lifted through the implementation of a number of safety protocols. As a result, Wellingtonians are getting back out, ready to compete and have fun. Sport is once again alive and well at Wellington!  

We are particularly excited about our new weekend programmes as we plan to turn the College into a sporting hub on Saturdays. We have already started by launching a mini-kickers football programme in conjunction with DB7K. This is for our younger pupils just beginning their football journey. We have also partnered with Shanghai Gymnastics to offer a Saturday gymnastics programme and are eagerly anticipating the Open Day planned for Saturday 30 October.

Gymnasts will have the opportunity to meet the coaches and try out our brand-new specialist gymnastics floor and Olympic-grade equipment (beams, bars and vault). Our coaches are all former national performers, and our programme will range from young beginners ('TumbleTots') to more accomplished performers in levels 2, 3 and 4 of the Australian Levels Programme (ALP).

Our football programme continues to go from strength to strength, and we are happy to announce the appointment of Darren Bowman as Assistant Director of Sport, with the specific responsibility to lead and grow our football programme. With the decision to run our programme in-house this year, we are delighted to see that the number of pupils representing the College has doubled from last year. We have age group teams ranging from under 9s right up to under 18s. They are participating in regular fixtures within the CISSA and SSSA conferences. We are also running our own invitational competitions to create one-day tournaments using our fabulous facilities.

This term, we have also begun the roll out our Performance programme. This focuses on our high-potential players — both boys and girls. This will run in addition to our already-growing Competitive and Recreational programmes. The hard work and commitment of both players and coaches is paying off as we were recently crowned champions in four age group competitions held at the school. We have a near 100% win rate in our weekly fixtures too!

Wellington's swimming programme has grown by 30% since last year, and our athletes continue to make admirable improvements. Last year saw a significant rise in personal bests at competition, and we are confident that this trend will continue this year. The first competition will take place here at Wellington on Saturday 23 October as part of the Shanghai Swim League series. We expect strong performances at this much-anticipated event.

Seasonal sports are also starting to gain momentum. Our Senior School volleyball teams finished first (girls) and second (boys) in the recent SISAC D1 Plate competitions. Our pupils are quick learners and have engaged fully with this programme, enjoying immediate success. We hope that pupils will bring this same level of commitment to our new season of basketball. Tennis continues to enjoy lots of support as well, and our players are thriving and improving at every level.  

The future is bright for sports at Wellington. We are encouraged to see so many of our pupil athletes committing themselves and performing at such high levels. We are confident that the programme we have in place will support such enthusiasm and range of abilities, as we continue to develop our sports provision to be the gold standard among international schools in the region.