It was a special day for the students of class 7 of Millennium National School on the 4th of July 2013. The whole group about 136 of them had an early breakfast in school and headed out to the Balewadi sports stadium, early in the morning at about 7.30 am. They reached in time to witness the 2nd day of the 20th Asian Athletics Championship.
They took their seats and waited patiently for the events to start. They were enthusiastic spectators for important athletics events the 110 m hurdles, discus throw and pole vault. As they were watching and cheering, the five sports coaches who accompanied them gave them a lot of inputs about how the sport is played, what the rules are, how the players score and the nitty gritty that goes into the training program.
Our students loudly cheered for the Indian team in the events. And our students, sitting together in a group in the school uniform with the Millennium discipline and manners were a pleasant sight to be seen as well!
And the students were quite impressed. Gayatri Walke, a student of class 7 was amazed as she saw the muscles of the hurdlers their thighs, quads and the amount of stretching they did. Bela Lodh, another class 7 student felt that the environment was very lively. It was her first experience of visiting a sports stadium to watch an international tournament. She also felt bad about the disqualification on account of a foul of an Irani player in the event that they attended.
The boys had their own opinions too. Sachit Deshmukh observed that foreign players had strong and bulky bodies. Megh Deshmukh noted that an Indian hurdler lost the race by just one millisecond. He was impressed that the difference was so fine and the timing documentation was so accurate!
All in all it was a wonderful learning experience. This feeling was echoed by the coaches who accompanied the students Ramdas Sir, Bajirao Sir, Pradip Sir, Sumedha Maam, Ganesh Sir and Anand Sir. We hope that the students are inspired and understand the hard work and determination that it takes to get to the top and the amount of competition that one has to beat in order to stay there!
Ramdas, Bajirao, Pradip, Sumedha, Ganesh and Anand.
Sports Department
