On the big stage - ActiveSG Athletics Fiesta
05/05/2016 20:57For 11 days the National Stadium hosted four athletics events consecutively: The Singapore Open, the Schools National Track and Field Championships, the ActiveSG Athletics Fiesta and the Asia Masters Athletics Championship.
Both of the boys were signed up to the Athletics Fiesta, the eldest in the Kids 5-6 yrs category and the youngest in the Parent & Child 4-6 yrs category.
After lunch we rode bikes to the stadium, signed in and collected race numbers for the children and my husband. The start of the events were running a bit late so we played and watched and waited, until they were all called to the first event.
The Kids category was similar to the last competition at the practice track with five events but the Parent & Child just had three events - throwing, running and jumping.
The Kids "endurance" 200 metre race was first to go. The music in the stadium was very loud and it was very hard to hear anything on the track. The 200 metres race was started after the normal finish line and was set to finish where the 200 metre race would usually begin at the end of the back straight. Some of the children didn't realise where the race was supposed to end and some of them (including mine) didn't hear the start whistle and only began to run after they saw the other chidren running!
About 10 metres before the end of the Parent & Child 60 metre sprint, my son stopped running and walked. When I asked him at the end what was wrong and why he had stopped, he told me he was "just tired" and then immediately proceeded to run almost 300 metres non-stop by himself!!
There were a few activities on the side of the track for the kids to do in between events - they loved this and both did each activiity probably 20 times or more!
The hurdles race was the last race for the Kids 5-6 category.. After all the races were finished, we played and watched as the organisers set up the trophies near to the podium. My eldest told me that he was disappointed to not have won but he was still happy that he had won the silver trophy for second place.
I knew he had finished about 5th in the first race he did
and 2nd or 3rd in both the sprint and the hurdles (I had no idea for the throw and jump) so I started to try to manage his expectations and let him down gently. "I think you've been great all afternoon" "You definitely tried your hardest" "Next year you'll be one of the older ones in your category"... and so on. ..
The Parent & Child trophies were presented first and then the Kids 5-6 yrs. Sure enough, he was presented the silver trophy as "First Runner Up". I don't know how he was so sure of it.
However, what made me more proud of him than his second place (or even if he had got first place) was that when he was on the podium he shook hands with the boy who won gold and told him how impressed he was with the speed that he could run. That, and not the silverware that my family brought home, was what made my day! So gracious and humble at 5 years old... so, so proud!
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