Sport and ECA Report

from AISHK The Lion Rock Magazine, Term 4 2021, Volume 36

by Australian International School Hong Kong

Message from The Head of School

2021 Sports Round-up

With sport in schools still somewhat hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, our local leagues have not yet resumed for sports seasons. Although ISSFHK and HKPSSA both have been unable to proceed with sporting competitions, schools with high vaccination rates have been involved in friendly fixtures. AISHK has been lucky enough to provide students with some experience representing the school in a range of sports that would usually be ‘in-season’ . With promotion to the ISSFHK Gold Division before the pandemic, we were able to coordinate and line up fixtures with other Gold Division schools.

Volleyball

Volleyball continues to develop at AISHK, and we had great participant numbers throughout Terms 3 and 4. We were able to compete in U14, U16 and U20 in the girls and U16 and U20 in the boys, against two schools. Firstly, we travelled to International Christian School over two afternoons to enjoy some tight competition. Up against a well-organised Volleyball program, our players learnt a lot from ICS and competed well, winning several sets. We then had Chinese International School host us and, once again, our teams fronted up well, winning their fair share of sets. Overall, we saw huge development in our basic volleyball skill sets which bodes well for the future once competitions resume again.

Soccer

Our Soccer program kicked off with our U14 Boys and Girls teams training in the early mornings and were fortunate enough to play a couple of friendly fixtures each. We hosted ICS boys A and B teams, drawing one and winning the other in front of excited parents and friends. The girls followed up with a win also against ICS the following day. The girls then visited CIS for a 9-aside thriller, winning 3-2 and showing some fantastic skill and development. Meanwhile, a strong CIS boys A and B squad came to AISHK showing their abilities and depth. Our boys showed a lot of heart and determination to stay in the games and nearly pulling off a great come from behind win.

Netball

We have had three netball teams training, two U16 and an U20. Our teams played fixtures against CIS, managing to win two and losing one. This was a great prelude to the high intensity matches against Kellett School a week later, where, although not coming out on top, our U16 teams pushed hard and performed well in extremely tightly-contested matches.

Swimming

The swimming season has been one of hope and disappointment as meets and championships were cancelled due to COVID-19 related rules regarding pool use. However, we eventually managed to compete in one friendly meet at Hong Kong International School. This was a small meet, with Kellett being the only other school invited, but was against two of the strongest swim programs in the International School system here in Hong Kong. Our swimmers excelled in this meet and can use this experience as we move forward toward more such events in the future.

Basketball

Our basketball program is continuing to evolve and develop, and our numbers were looking strong with six teams this year. Unfortunately, with our calendar, we could only work in one fixture for our U16/20 girls against CIS. We have a lot of emerging young players who are very enthusiastic, and we hope to capture this talent and interest for future tournaments and leagues.

Looking forward to 2022, we will continue to look for opportunities to compete locally until the local leagues are up and running again. In the meantime, the continued development of our athletes, young and old, will be paramount.

AISHK STUDENTS'

EQUESTRIAN ACHIEVEMENTS

Although many interschool competitions have had to be put on hold over the last year, a number of individual events have been able to proceed, including equestrian programs.

Several AISHK students have trained during the school year, which has resulted in two students being able to represent our school in the Hong Kong Equestrian Interschool Competition for 2021-2022. Sarah Broderick (Year 8) and Kathy Chang (Year 10) have recently competed in the first part of the interschool competition, which will continue through to 2022.

Kathy, competing in her first competition, performed exceptionally well, especially considering she was riding in a very strong field and with a horse which she had never ridden before (horses are drawn out at random). Despite not placing, Kathy is to be commended on her fantastic achievements and should be extremely proud of herself,

Sarah, who has gained exceptional results for herself and AISHK in the past, has started her campaign well, once again. Sarah also competed on an unfamiliar horse and is currently in 2nd place overall as an individual. This has contributed to AISHK’ s overall position of 3rd on the leader board.

We wish Sarah and Kathy all the best with the remainder of the competition, and look forward to updating the community with their results.

MINI & JUNIOR DUKE AWARD

2021 was the inaugural year of the Mini & Junior Duke Award at AISHK, with the community jumping at the chance to be involved. The aim of the program was for students to complete ten challenges (out of 14), specific to their year level. Challenges ranged from cookery, art and horticulture, to music, writing, sport, first aid, sustainability and much, much more. Evidence of completed challenges were to be produced and presented for signing off by our Duke Leaders.

The aim of the Mini & Junior Duke Award is to encourage independence, selfmotivation and to gain knowledge of new experiences and skills. With the help of parents, siblings and helpers at home, students embraced the opportunity wholeheartedly. In December, we had the pleasure of awarding over 75 students from Year 1 to Year 6 with their Mini or Junior Duke badge and certificate. Our Duke ambassador (mascot), Joey Duke has been super impressed with the work that has been submitted this year and sends her congratulationstoall.

We encourage those that have not yet completed their Duke challenges, to continue over the holidays and we will have another Dukey Drop Day on 28 January, 2022. We can still award students their badges and certificates once completed then. Soon after Chinese New Year, we will look to enrol students to the 2022 year of the Mini & Junior Duke award at AISHK.

Our AISHK swimming team students were very lucky to participate in the ‘Welcome Back Siobhan Haughey’ event, organised by Arena Hong Kong on Friday 20 August.

Siobhan Haughey won two Silver medals (100m and 200m Freestyle) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, making her the first Hong Kong swimmer to win an Olympic medal and the first Hong Kong athlete to win two Olympic medals in any sport.

It was a special moment for our swimmers who heard Siobhan speak about her Olympics experience. Our students had the chance to ask her some questions and even got to see and touch her Silver Medals! We are very thankful to Siobhan who shared lots of inspiring messages and insights, including some advice on time management, noting that swimmers must strike a balance between training, academics and social time. This event was very meaningful for our swimmers and it was also inspiring for me as Head Coach. Thank you to all who made it possible.

More recently, Siobhan has broken the women’s 200-metre freestyle record at the 2021 World Short Course Championships, becoming Hong Kong’s first World Record holding swimmer. Congratulations Siobhan!

Eric Yeung | Aquatic and Swim Program Manager