It was a bouquet of 14 events ranging from 100m to triplejump to javelin throw that was to competed by athletes of 82 schools whoparticipated in the Cluster IX Athletic Meet organised by the LaxmiInternational School in Gujarat. It was held in the first week of November.Among the sea of determined faces, 30 athletes of the Navy Children School (NCS)resolved to give their best and make their school proud. The results of theevents showed that they did not falter in their resolve, with 24 of thembringing home medals.
“Last year’s cluster saw the participation of 56 schoolsfrom over the country. This year the number was 82 and therefore thecompetition was tougher,” says Physical Education (PE) teacher Sudhir Kulkarniwho, along with Pramod Patil the other PE teacher and Santosh Kumar the coachtrained the students for two gruelling months before the event. They practicedin the mornings and evenings, on the beach and on the artificial turf in acollege in Margao. In the home town, they practiced on the Chicalim grounds.All the athletes trained together for the various events, with the threeteachers dividing their time between the groups. The practices will continuetill the Nationals which will happen from December 25 to 27 in Chennai.
The events were divided into three categories “ for U-14,U-16 and U-19. “This was the first time in the history of NCS that a girl “Sharyn Dourado - won first and second place in 100m and 200m respectively, wonthe Best Performing Athlete trophy and is selected for the CBSE Nationals,”says Kumar. While Jonas Silveira bagged the Best Performing Athlete Award, KMAnand won the Individual Championship Trophy in the U-14 boy’s category.
Nadeem Nawaz, from class 10 won four medals “three silverand one bronze. “I have been practicing for three years and have been forclusters couple of times. The last time I participated was in 2010 and I wontwo gold, both for relay. Then I participated in a cluster in Rajkot and wonthree golds with one individual trophy forU-14. I practice every day,” he says.
Their school and the coach are very proud of them. Kumarbelieves the young athletes have a lot of potential and can go on toparticipate in international events too.
