It was the 6th of September, 2008, and the eve of the sports day; all Sankaraites were chanting “Rain, rain go away, let us conduct Sports Day!” And when Sunday came finally their prayers had been heeded to as the ground in Sri Sankara Vidyashramam, where the annual sports meet was held, was full of brick sand, with no signs of puddles or water anywhere, perfect for the Sports Day.
It was to be a battle of colors as the formidable Reds, who were the defending champions, were to fight it out against their arch rivals, the ever-improving Green and Yellow houses and not to forget Blue, which had a strong line-up.
The day first began with a prayer song, dedicated to Lord Ganesha, by V. Sankaran of Standard VIII. Then the respective House captains led their teams to the ground for the most-awaited march past.
The marching of houses then commenced, with the sounds of “Left, Right, Left” echoing all over the ground. Led by the Sports Secretary, Sudhar Neelakantan, the houses marched along and on reaching the school’s principal, Ms. Subala Ananthanarayanan, gave a huge salute and then went past. Also marching with them were the NCC girl cadets of our school, clad in white and following the lead of the Sports Secretary.
After the march past, the Olympic torch was lit by our Principal and was then handed over to the Sports Secretary who lapped with the torch and then handed it over to the respective house captains. The captains then ran a lap each, with the torch blazing past. It was then time for the Olympic Oath taken by the Sports Secretary on behalf of the assembled athletes.
The Sports meet was then declared open by our school principal, Ms. Subala Ananthanarayanan, who stated that sports and academics assumed equal importance. demonstration of yogasanas by students of the VI standard and the display of human pyramids by boys ranging from Class VI to XII followed. The amazing pyramid formed by the students began rotating first in the clockwise direction and then in the anti-clockwise direction. The audience was awe-struck by this but still there was more action to follow.
The track and field events then began with the 1500 metres event, which involved the students run nearly seven-and-a-half laps around the ground. Captain of the Yellow House, Akhilesh, who eased to the finish way ahead of others, won this event. In second place was Abishek of Std X also representing the Yellow House. Third position was bagged by Shravan S of the Red House.
Then came a series of events such as long jump, shot put, javelin throw, high jump and the triple jump. In the long jump event, Shravan S of the Red House, came up with an astounding jump of nearly 5-1/2 metres which won him and the Reds, five solid points. Midway, the Reds were ‘all guns blazing’ as the Red took the overall lead, followed by Green trailing by a deficit of nearly 30 points.
In the Super Senior Girls category and Senior Girls category, the Reds came up with a clean sweep as Suryashree Roy (Super Senior Girls) and Samyuktha R (Senior Girls) triumphed in almost all events.
In the Super Senior Boys category, Red claimed the top spot in the individual tally as Shravan S beat the Sports Secretary Sudhar N of Yellow House by a meagre 3 points. In the Senior Boys category, it was the Blue house which came first as Abishek A.R. overcame stiff competition from Akash of the Green House.
In the final points tally, the Reds, who were the clear favourites, had decimated their opponents by a margin if nearly 50 points with a score of nearly 240 points. Green threw a stiff challenge to the Reds and came second with nearly 200 points, followed by Yellow and Blue. The wonderful event wouldn’t have been possible without the efforts of the Physical Education teachers and their colleagues.