Chengelo's Elite Athletes do the business at Sports Day.

Chengelo Elite Athletes earn success at annual Sports Day.

All five members of Chengelo Elite Athletics Squad triumphed in races at this year’s school Sports Day. Herbert Mithi ran a personal best of 4 mins 57.81s as he won the Intermediate Boys 1500m with ease. Chigomezyo Kawonga was the victor in the Senior Boys 800m and Kikwanza Sondashi won both his 100m and 200m Senior Boys races. Johanna Bangala ran a school record in the Junior Girls 200m, clocking 27.67s. Newly-crowned ‘Queen of the Sprints’ Maria Bangala smashed her personal best and the school record by Almost a second in the Junior Girls 100m, recording a blistering time of 12.55s. She also won in the Junior Girls 400m and 1500m before teaming up with Johanna for victory in the Junior Girls 4x100m relay.

 Maria Bangala winning her 1500m race.

The Elite Athletes were excited for this year’s Sports Day; the first since the CEAS were established and a chance to show how they have improved since last year’s event. In the very first race, the Junior Girls 1500m, Maria showed her athletic superiority by easing to victory and claiming a school record of 5 mins 55.31s. Herbert produced a perfectly-paced effort in the Intermediate Boys race to claim maximum points for his house team and recorded a personal best time in the process. Chigo was the last of the Elite Athletes to run 1500m in the Senior Boys race, but was run down on the final straight after a superb effort by Daniel Parsons. A good time of 4 mins 42.12s was seven seconds off his personal best.

 Herbert Mithi claimed a personal best time in the 1500m.

 Chigo ran a solid time in his 1500m.

Johanna was up next, winning by a huge margin in the Junior Girls 200m. Her time of 27.67s was a school record and her best ever time on a grass track. Incidentally, her best time of 26.30s, set at ISAZ Finals in June, would have made her the fastest under-13 girl over 200m in the UK this year. (Check rankings at www.thepowerof10.info). Kikwanza followed suit in his Senior Boys 200m race, winning by daylight in a school record time of 23.36s.

Johanna running a great bend in her 200m.

Meanwhile, Herbert was away from the running track and making a big impression at the long jump pit. A jump of 5.45m in the Intermediate Boys competition gave him his second win of the day. The young man has shown his versatility in athletics over the last few years. Stop showing off, Herbert!

 Kikwanza on his way to victory in the 200m.

Maria then won her second race of the day, the Junior Girls 400m, in a school record time of 1 min 4.76s. Johanna could have also competed in this, her favourite event, but let another member of the Kaimbi house team take part instead. Besides, she was too busy finishing second in the Junior Girls shot-putt while the race was happening. Stick to the running track, Johanna!

 Maria won four races including the 400m.

Maria followed this up with a superb time of 12.55s to win the Junior Girls 100m. In the Senior Boys 100m, Kikwanza, despite a hasty “On your marks, get set, go!” call from the starter, ran a great time of 11.13s, one hundredth of a second off the school record.

 Kikwanza gets out of the blocks ahead of his rivals in the 100m.

 

Chigo finished off the individual events in style, with victory in the Senior Boys 800m. A slow first lap was followed by a burst of speed by Chigo, who left his competition behind to claim first place in 2 mins 14.83s. This more than made up for the disappointment in the 1500m. Well done, Chigo!

 Chigo on the home straight in the 800m.

To cap off a memorable day of good performances, Johanna teamed up with Maria to smash the Junior Girls 4x100m record with a time of 55.50s, three and a half seconds faster than the old record. Kikwanza was given a lot of catching up to do in the Senior Boys relay. Receiving the baton way behind his competitors, he chased down King of the Sprints runner-up Nelson Amosi but could not quite catch the first-place runner. Still, Kiki was happy with his performance.

 Team Kaimbi recovered from a suspect baton exchange to smash the school record.

 Nelson is helpless as Kikwanza passes him for second position in the relay.

 

Despite the best efforts of Kaimbi house team-mates Maria, Johanna, Kikwanza and Chigo, it was Herbert and his Mukwa house team-mates who won the overall Sports Day trophy on this occasion. Congratulations Herbert and Mukwa house!