On Tuesday, April 17, there came the High School Sports Day at UNIS Hanoi as students competed in an array of track and field events earning points for their respective teams.

Every year the students gather in their house teams, the Buffaloes, Eagles, Tigers, and Lions. It was announced two days after the event that the team earning the most points was the Eagles, giving the Eagles their second consecutive win.

Each year at UNIS Hanoi several occasions come, where students are able to compete with one another to earn points for their house team. These have included the Sports Day, swim meets and soccer tournaments that have since stopped. The most important event though is the Sports Day; it is an all-day function spanning a variety of events for the students to participate in. The students could sign up for as many as they wanted however with a minimum of three. The other two events however have been reduced over the past years or stopped entirely as occasions to win points for their house team. At the end of the year the points gathered from the whole school (elementary, middle, and high school) are combined to find the winning team for the year.

The score this year was calculated to be a total of 240,200 points. For each house team individually however it was announced to be: 69,050 points for the Eagles, 61,567 for the Lions, 60,633 for the Tigers, and 48,950 for the Buffaloes. These points however were only for the High School Sports Day and it will be until the end of the school year when it is announced which team will win the cup for the entire year.

This year brought a total of eleven events, split between five field events and six track events. The field events included: high jump, long jump, shot put, javelin, and discus. The track events included the 80m hurdles, 100m sprint, 200m sprint, 400m sprint, the 1500m run, and the 4 x 100m relays.

The spirit of the day was shown by the students on and off the field. When not participating in the events students were playing football, American football, or just hanging out. Particularly in the relays, the Tigers displayed their pride by wearing a red cape (their team colour) as they ran the race. In fact the team colours could be seen on students throughout the day in forms of hairspray and paint, not to mention the team shirts.

Though many believed that the Sports Day was just fun break from regular school, there were students who thought some improvements could have made the event better. “It was unorganized,” said Grade 10 student Jackson Wood “there were multiple [field] events at one time. But otherwise it was fine.” Another Grade 9 student, Hui Won Kang, said this about the event “It was very hot so it would have been nice to cool down somehow.”

It was recorded to have been 31 degrees Celsius on the day however due to humidity it felt as high as 36 degrees. There was little wind during the event and despite having clouds and a forecast of potential rain; the sun was still able to shine.