Defining Greatness: Recapping the Year in Sports Achievements

Austin Sweeney

Director of Sport and CCA

I am incredibly proud of the achievements of our pupils in sport this academic year and equally thankful to the tireless teachers who have guided them on their path to fulfilling their potential.

Upon my arrival, in Hangzhou in August 2023, it became immediately apparent that our school is a very special place. It is a place where pupils are given multiple platforms upon which to thrive and express themselves. There has been much success in the past, and for the excellent work prior to my arrival I openly thank the people who put in excellent practice for development. In our sixth year of operation, I wanted PE and Sport to shoot for the stars to see how high we could go.

Our confirmation as full member schools of The Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA) gave us a platform to participate in several international competitions against other British international schools in our geographical region. With over 40 separate sports competitions per year offered across a wide age range, it was important that we take the right steps forward to determine where and how we can compete with other schools that are longer established. More importantly, our results in local and international competitions would give us data to use for targeted development in sport.

Our continued participation in the Hangzhou International Schools Athletics Conference (HISAC) has provided our pupils regular competitions throughout the academic year, competing against schools from across the city and beyond, with schools from Changzhou and Jiaxing joining our swimming galas. We have consistently finished in the top five schools as separate entities (WCIH, HSH); however, with a combined team score across all competitions held, we are comfortably the highest-scoring team in the city. We also entered the 2nd Hangzhou HISI Youth Swimming Invitational where our pupils performed admirably, winning medals, and achieving personal best times.

In February, we sent 17 pupils to the FOBISIA Invitational Swimming Championships at Thanyapura Sports Resort, Phuket, Thailand. More than 1,000 swimmers from across Asia met to compete in one of the foremost swimming competitions in the region. It was our first time in attendance, and we are delighted to share that we performed beyond expectations. Most of our swimmers achieved personal best times in both long course (LC) and short course (SC) events. We were the top-performing school in the U10 SC section, as well as individuals winning two gold, two silver, and three bronze medals.

Our Head of Swimming, Ms Young Chen, has overseen a complete structural change to our swimming programme. The implementation of early morning swimming training sessions, in addition to School Activities and after-school swimming training, has furthered the development and performance of our most talented athletes, while ensuring that ‘the next group’ are also progressing at the same rate.

In artistic swimming, Ms Hou continues to develop aspiring athletes to perform at the highest level. In December 2023, our team attended the 17th Singapore Open Artistic Swimming Championships. Our school team competed against national teams from Sri Lanka and New Zealand, as well as delegations from Taiwan and Macau. The top artistic swimming clubs from across the continent were represented, with nearly 20 teams in total. We won a gold medal in the U15 Free Mixed Duet, and finished in a very respectable seventh place in the Team Performance Final.

On dry land, the pupils continue to prove themselves excellent competitors. In the Hangzhou School Sports League (HSSL) competitions, our U12 girls’ and boys’ football teams were comfortably crowned champions, our U14 girls’ basketball team also champions, while our U14 boys’ basketball team finished a very respectful third place after the team was decimated by injury. During semester two, the sports switch over so U12 play basketball and U14 play football.

In HISAC competitions, we have had similar levels of success. In badminton, our athletes had some great results, finishing in second place for U14 girls’ singles and third place doubles. Our U14 boys similarly had good results with second in singles and third in doubles. Our U19 team had a great result with us winning the boys singles competition and finishing in third place for the doubles.

We performed excellently in the cross-country running competition in November 2023, taking home seven medals (two gold, three silver, two bronze) from the competitions.

In team sports, our U19 girls’ basketball team finished second in their competition in December, while our U14 girls football team also finished a commendable 2nd place in their competition. The boys were disappointed to finish fourth; however they will use this experience as motivation to improve.

In February, we took sixteen athletes to Pattana Sports Resort, Chonburi Province, Thailand for the FOBISIA U13 Games. The pupils competed in four sports across three days, making it a very intense competition with very little rest. We competed against schools from Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and South Korea. We had some excellent results across all four sports. We collected four individual medals in the pool but ultimately finished in sixth place in the swimming competition. 

In football, our girls finished in fifth place, while our boys were tied with two other schools for second on points, however once goal difference and head-to-head results were counted, this moved us down to a very heartbreaking fourth place finish. In basketball, both of our teams can consider themselves unlucky in finishing in fourth-place. We had some very spirited performances and were desperately unlucky to lose some of the matches in which we competed. In track and field athletics, each of our athletes won at least one medal, with 27 event medals won in total. This is a phenomenal return, and placed our team in third place, just two points of second!

We very much look forward to 2024/2025, where we aim to participate in The FOBISIA Games at U15 (November 2024), U13 (February 2025), and U11 (May/June 2025).

In Semester two, there was a seismic shift in focus for our sports program, with much more emphasis placed on the development of primary athletes. Early morning swimming training sessions were expanded to include pupils from Primary School, to work with a specialist swimming coach to enhance performance, and this was mirroredin after school sessions. Expansion of the Artistic Swimming training was also implemented. 

In dry land sports, primary basketball, primary football, and primary athletics sessions were set up across the week to boost the development and performance of our pupils in a range of sports. This was in conjunction with development in U14 volleyball, U14 touch rugby and U14 football, and athletics for Junior High and Senior School.

We had several large competitions for Primary School athletes in May and June, including the HISAC U11 Football, HISAC U11 Basketball, and Hiba Shanghai Athletics for U10 and U11. Our Secondary School athletes competed inthe HSSL U12 Basketball, U14 Football and the HISAC Ultimate Frisbee competition. In swimming, we participated in the 3rd Hangzhou HISI Youth Swimming Invitational, held at the Hangzhou Olympic Centre in June.

The 2024/2025 academic year promises to be one of great success, building on all that has been done. We look forward to welcoming much more competition from our Wellington College China sister schools as we put forward the WCC Championships across a range of sports, HISAC, HSSL, HISI, and FOBISIA competitions.

For the hard work and dedication of our pupils, I can confidently say thank you on behalf of your teachers. Your commitment and desire to better yourself is our inspiration and motivation to continue to develop you to be the best version of yourself.

To our parents and the Friends of Wellington, I would like to extend my personal thanks. Your commitment to bringing your children to sporting events, training sessions, and ensuring that your child has the best possible opportunities is unmatched by any other school I have worked in.

To the PE and Swimming teams, you are the best. No other words required.