Patana Gateway

Primary FOBISSEA Games 2009

What Was and What Might Have Been at the Primary FOBISSEA Games 2009

I cannot begin this years report of the Primary Games without celebrating the nearly 6 months of dedication that all of our children, parents and Coaches put into our Patana Team of 36 primed and prepared students from Year 4, 5, and 6. The Games were hosted this year by Garden International School in KL, Malaysia. It was a great shame that we did not get the opportunity to show off our power on the Tee Ball field or Football pitches this year due to our early return to Bangkok. Unfortunately one of our competitors from another school was diagnosed with H1N1 and after the other Bangkok Schools had declared that they were pulling out there was little choice but to take the safest option and return home.

This was only one part of the story though, as our team had already competed in the Athletics and Swimming events of the games with much enjoyment and success. Our small army of orange and black parent and sibling supporters certainly made their presence felt at the opening ceremony and Athletics on the Thursday morning. The performances on the track and in the field were truly incredible as time and again Patana students were called to the podium to receive their medals. In each of the events their were 8 competitors in each of the A and B sections competing for the elusive Gold or indeed a personal best performance to celebrate. Our Under 11’s certainly showed their class as the utilized their experience to the full, coming out with the following staggering statistics that out of 39 Events they won a total of 32 Medals with 20 Gold! Our Under 10 athletes held up their end with 17 Medals and 13 4^th placed finishes out of their 39 events. Not to be outdone our Under 9s who were taking part for the first time and competing on a proper 400m track all in the same day were superb. Their figures of 30 Medals out of 39 events with 13 Golds proved a great reward from their effort in training at ECAs, during lunch times and before school in the build up to the Games.

All of the children should be justly proud of their performances but a few stood out as very gifted young athletes on the day.

Under 9 Boys

Denis Sprenger             =       2 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze

Ethan Abai Haddon       =       2 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze

Under 9 Girls

Catherine Veasey      =       5 Gold, 1 Silver

Ja Ja Umpujh              =       4 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze

Tigerlily Perry                =       4 Gold, 2 Bronze

Under 10 Boys

Karatae Uahwatanasakul =     3 Gold

Under 10 Girls

Angelina Siddons              =       1 Gold, 2 Silver

Under 11 Boys

Hein Htet MacArthur      =       5 Gold, 1 Silver

Ross Nicholson              =       4 Gold, 1 Silver

David Gist                          =       3 Gold, 2 Silver

Under 11 Girls

Peachy Ellis                   =       4 Gold, 2 Silver

Molly Frain                        =       2 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze

Pann Maleenont               =       2 Gold, 2 Silver

From the track a very tired and hot group of children headed for the bus that would take them to the swimming pool for another round of competition with our friends from across South East Asia. After a short warm-up our afternoon got off to a flying start with some great swims from our 100m IM swimmers, with 2 Golds and 2 Bronzes in the first two races!  The pace of the afternoon was frenetic with some swimmers competing in 6+ events!

Unbeaten in their relays and with strong individual performances by Pann Maleenont, Kate Wattanavekin and Molly Frain - our Year 6 Girls were particularly impressive. Tegan Frizelle did a fantastic job in the U9 age category winning several events by comfortable margins. Catherine Ferre (U10 Girls) and Ethan Abai-Haddon (U9 Boys) were work horses for the team, swimming event after event and also managing to post large personal bests in the process.

Perhaps most pleasing was that many of our team games specialists performed very well in the pool achieving huge personal bests after much hard work on their swimming under Khun Patcharee in Terms 2 and 3.

The final event of the swimming was the much awaited Tyre Relay.  Our Year 4's were fast in the straight but struggled to make clean transitions and finished outside the top 3. Year 5 faired a little better but were outpaddled by a very strong KLASS team. Year 6 were geared up to defend their title for the thrid year in a row but due to an unfortunate slip during a changeover were relegated to 2nd place. It was a valiant effort from all and a fantastic end to a long day of competition.

As it turned out that was the end of competition for our teams for this year but even with the obvious disappointment all of our children should be rightly proud of their efforts and by the way that they handled themselves throughout.

A huge and final thank you to all of the children who tried out for the team this year whether they made the team or not as the fierce competition that they provided always helps our teams to be strong. Also to the Coaches of all of our ECAs and not just those that took a FOBISSEA team I thank you for your continued dedication to the Patana cause.

So Tanglin in Singapore next year! Come Year 4,5 and 6 of 2009-10 it is your time to shine!

Mr. Tatam

Head of Physical Education

NB. Swimming by Coach Cindy.

To see more photo's please view the Photo Gallery in elementary other activities

http://www.patana.ac.th/Elementary/viewGallery.asp?hGalleryID=702