HKHS Athletics Carnvial 2021

On Friday 7 May 2021, the 50th Annual Henry Kendall High School Athletics Carnival was held at Mingara Regional Athletics Centre. Despite the less than ideal weather the students showed up and competed in numbers larger than we would typically see. Although this was initially surprising, the photos clearly showed that the students were not going to let a little rain stop them from enjoying themselves. 

The day started with a handful of students participating in the triple jump. Shortly thereafter, the first track event was underway with the students competing in the 800m and 400m events. Some blistering times were set on the track with Malakai Wolfgram breaking the Under 15’s 400m record (set in 1989) by more than 3 seconds. 

The remaining field events were also taking place with each age group rotating through the throwing and jumping events. Many records were challenged throughout the day with multiple students coming within millimetres of decade-old records.

The rain did make an appearance as the girls lined up for their 100m events. Despite this, each age group was well contested with some incredibly close finishes. The boys 100m events were also closely contested with Under 16’s Brayden Tory setting the fastest 100m time of the day with a lightning fast 11.49 seconds.

The final events on the day’s calendar were the 4 x 100m relays with each house selecting their fastest 4 runners for each age category.  There were some close finishes across the age groups with Warrigal taking a strong win in the final All Ages Relay to finish off the carnival.

In recent years, a new event has been added to the carnival’s program. The staff vs student relay has long been featured at our Annual Swimming carnival and is quickly becoming a pinnacle event featured at the track.

The staff managed to form a strong team of 10 runners with Year 12 given the opportunity to choose who would be worthy of representing the student team. The format for the race saw runners sprinting 60m along the finishing straight delicately handing over the baton to their awaiting team mate for the return journey. The start of the race was close with both teams matching pace. The students then begun to form a small lead until a surprisingly fast Mr Fabila took hold of the baton. Under this pressure the students made their first mistake, dropping the baton during the change. Although this would typically lead to immediate disqualification the staff were hoping for some competition and politely waited for the students to make up lost ground. 

The final leg of the sprint was going to decide the winning team. Mitchell Ryan was the final runner for the student team. Unfortunately for him, he was running against the lighting fast Mr Ardita. A young member of staff, Mr Ardita accelerated at a blistering pace leaving daylight between himself and Mitchell, who slowly jogged across the line in defeat. As the students came to terms with another consecutive loss the staff were humble enough in their victory to not even mention the dropped baton.

The staff were proud of the enthusiasm and sportsmanship than was shown on the day and hope the students are proud of their own efforts and hope they enjoyed themselves throughout the day.

I would like to congratulate the students who have been successful in progressing to the Brisbane Water Zone Athletics Carnival and wish them the best of luck in their events.

Mr Michael Mellish

Sports Organiser