Jump

Been quite a successful sporting week here for the A-team. A couple of major accomplishments, illustrating quite clearly that the girls inherited their dad's athleticism, because they certainly don't get it from me!

First up is basketball. Both girls played this season, which lasts two school terms. Alanna's team unfortunately finished at the bottom of the ladder (rankings of the teams in her division.) Still, she had a great time with her teammates, and is looking forward to playing next season. Somehow, we never got a group photo of her team. Best I can do is this shot of the girls at the Presentation Night, where participation medals and awards are given out. Alanna's the tall one on the left :-)

Aliya's team, on the other hand, finished at the top of the ladder for her division. She's been playing with these girls for a year now, and there are some really good, experienced players. Last Sunday they had a playoff game against the #2 team, a team that played a bit dirty are very very aggressive. (This was the same team that beat our previously-unbeaten team in the Grand Final last season.) At last Sunday's playoff game, we were behind at halftime, but came back and had a one point lead with five seconds left to go. Aliya's teammate threw the ball in, which was promptly grabbed by an opponent, who sunk a basket right at the buzzer for the win. Luckily, her team had a second chance on Wednesday night, playing the winner of the #3 vs #4 game. They won that game by one point, sending them to the Grand Final.
Which brings us to this past Sunday, when they re-played the team from the previous Sunday. Got all that? If not, never mind. Long story short, they played their best game, and won the Grand Final!

Final score

Getting Premier trophy from her coach after the game

We're #1

At Presentation Night

Now on to the second athletic highlight of the week. But first, some background info. Last month, students from Years 4-6 participated in the "House Athletics." Students belong to one of four different houses, and competed against each other in a number of track and field events. Alanna is in the Warren house, can you find her?

 She did extremely well, getting first place for high jump and shot put, second for discus, and fourth for hurdles, out of all the 10 year old girls at her school.

Because she placed first, she was able to represent her school in those events at the District level competition on Tuesday, against seven or eight other schools in the area. First up was high jump.

And here she is in action! While Alanna was very glad she won, what she enjoyed most was the cheering and support from her classmates, who were off to the side.

And the winner for the girls high jump was.....

She also competed in shot put. In this video she almost threw it (which isn't allowed) and she actually hurt her arm. In fairness, it's not like she had a lot of shot put training or practice :-)

 She came in third, missing second place by one centimeter. You can see her collection of ribbons below.

 

Because she came first in high jump, she'll compete next month in the Divisional Competition, representing the 10 year old girls in the Caulfield district. We can't wait! Looks like she'll be spending the upcoming term break trying to jump over a broomstick and landing on mattresses.