Sportsmanship the winner at the inter-school cross-country

The rain finally could not prevent the annual inter-house cross-country any longer. Originally scheduled for September 18 and postponed until September 21 due to incessant rain, the runners were ready to scale the hills of Mussoorie. Woodstock hosted the event and the schools participating included Wynberg Allen School, Waverley Convent, St Georges College and oak Grove School. Bad weather had also hampered any attempts at training for all the teams.

The event started off with the senior boys running their race. Last minute replacements of six boys in a team of eight changed the original team the night before the race and Woodstock ran well considering this. The winner of this division was Anmol Lal of Wynberg Allen School. Lal, not only came first but also broke the record by a few seconds.

Mr. Steve Luukkonen, boys coach and PE teacher said that he was "very happy" to see the outcome. "It is very hard to have expectations. I didn't expect to have four teams finishing the last eight spots."

"Izaiah Vignali, Grade 5, who came first in the sub-junior boys section only after four practices, impressed Mr. Luukkonen immensely. "Izaiah was amazing. He is dedicated and is a natural athlete. He can be the best if he keeps practicing." Izaiah also broke the record by pacing himself to come to the finishing line in 15.01 minutes while the previous record holder, Manu Garg held the record of coming in at 15.34.

Mr. Luukkonen was extremely impressed to see Neel Patel, Saksham Garg and Yajush Hingle all from Grade 10, who stopped and helped Srikar Kitambi also from Grade 10 when he got an asthma attack while running. "Sportsmanship and team work are very special to me", he stated. He was also impressed by the performance of the boys who were asked to run the race at the last minute. Though the event was postponed and some participants were unprepared, everyone ran well and gave their best despite the rainy days and slippery paths