Thursday 14th to Sunday 17th March
The British Schools in the Middle East U11 Games is a huge competition and something that we regard as the pinnacle of our sporting year at TES. Alongside the KFSAC competitions that we participate in at Under 9 and U11 level in Kuwait, we take this event very seriously and it is a major achievement if your child is selected for this sporting competition. This year the games were hosted at Jumeriah English Speaking School (JESS) in Dubai.
The BSME U11 Games is the biggest of the BSME Games that takes place. As there are so many schools that want to take part the games are split into a large school (schools with 4 form entry or more at year 6) and a small school games (schools with three form entry or less at year 6). Therefore as TES have 3 classes at year 6 we enter the small school games. KES and NES who have around 10 form entry enter the large school games. There is a bit of a misconception that the large school games is better than the small school games. This is most definitely not the case. It is based purely on the number of pupils in your school at U11 age and not ability.
The games this year were hosted by JESS in Dubai at their superb Arabian Ranches facility. This includes a full size floodlit football pitch, 9 lane swimming pool, 3 netball courts and a sports hall over double the size of ours at TES. The host school catered very well for all of the teams and the supporters, making the games a very picturesque and watchable event.
The Games includes 5 sports: Swimming, Athletics, Basketball, Netball and Football that were hosted over 3 days of competition. There are 12 schools in both the large and small school games. In our games the schools were the following: BISAK (Saudi), Dharhan (Saudi), Park House (Qatar), Doha College (Qatar), Jeddah (Saudi), Cairo English School (Egypt), International Community School Amman (Jordan), JESS (Dubai), Dubai British School (Dubai), Horizon (Dubai), British School Muscat (Oman) and TES.
Over the 3 days of competition TES achieved some quite outstanding results. The squad placed in the following events:
Day 1: Swimming: 6th place (7 points)
Day 2 Morning: Athletics: 3rd place (10 points)
Day 2 Afternoon: Basketball: 1st place (12 points)
Day 3: Football: 3rd place (10 points)
Day 3: Netball: 6th place (7 points)
Overall position: 2nd place (46 points)
This is a superb achievement from the squad and something we should all be very proud of. TES are now currently the defending champions in basketball having also won the event in 2012. In the other events to achieve 3rd place in both football and athletics against some very strong competition is excellent. In netball the girls were drawn in a very tough group and if the draw had gone the other way they would probably have finished in a higher position, however 6th place is still a super result. In the swimming event the 5 schools finishing above TES are outstanding swimming schools, in particular Park House school who won the swimming. They have 3 or 4 swimmers competing at the Aspire Academy in Qatar, training 6 times a week with the best coaches in the Middle East.
Swimming: 1st: Park House 2nd: Horizon 3rd: BSM 6th: TES
Athletics: 1st: Horizon 2nd: Doha College 3rd: TES
Basketball: 1st: TES 2nd: Horizon 3rd: Doha College
Football: 1st: Horizon 2nd: ICA Jordan 3rd: TES
Netball: 1st: Horizon 2nd: JESS 3rd: Doha College 6th: TES
Overall: 1st: Horizon: 58 points 2nd: TES: 46 points 3rd: Doha College: 45 points
We are very proud to come 2nd overall and we should really celebrate the achievements of these children. BSME is the biggest event they can take part in from a sporting perspective. All of the schools we competed against have their strongest possible athletes at the games, so it is a fantastic achievement to come in the top 3 positions. The winning school, Horizon from Dubai were quite outstanding, winning 3 events and coming second in the other 2.
The final day finished with a presentation of the trophies, a BBQ and a disco which the children thoroughly enjoyed. The next day the squad travelled to Atlantis water park which was a great way to bring a terrific sporting trip to an end for the children.
TES are now fully recognised on the BSME sports front and are regarded as a very strong sporting school. We are now firmly on the map near the very top in BSME sport and hopefully we will stay this way for a long time to come.
With the support of the parents, hard work and continued positive attitude of the children we hope to continue our success and continue to keep raising the bar on the sports front.
Mr Leaver and the BSME staff
To view the entire U11 BSME Dubai 2013 gallery click here