London 2012 athletics: a trip of a lifetime for QE boys

QE boys and staff have been reflecting on their never-to-be-forgotten visit to ‘Super Saturday’ at the Olympics.

Eight places were awarded to QE pupils and two to accompanying members of staff through the London schools allocation for the morning session at the Athletics Stadium in the Olympic Park. Boys and staff had to enter an internal ballot in School to win their tickets.

“The atmosphere was fantastic and the 80,000-seater stadium completely full,” said Margaret Gibson, who runs the School’s Front Office. Her name was drawn along with PE teacher Nick Bird.

“We were lucky enough to see Jess Ennis compete in both the long jump and javelin disciplines of her seven-event heptathlon, and her performances in both these events set her up brilliantly to win her final discipline of 800m in the evening session which gave her the gold medal! We also can say that ‘we were there’ for the historic occasion when Oscar Pistorius ran in the 400m heats.  Thank goodness that no one blinked, as we had the 100m heats and saw the fastest men in the world and probably the biggest character in athletics today – Usain Bolt!”

The eight boys successful in the ballot were Musaji China, John Woods, Ameen El-Hariri, Joel George, Ghavin Kuganesan, Zarius Meher-Homji, Karan Sanghavi and Tomas Vieira-Short.

“It was a wonderful experience for all concerned: the stadium and cauldron containing the Olympic flame were magnificent, the whole park and its landscaping set out brilliantly,” concluded Mrs Gibson.

QE pupils, staff and alumni are now all eagerly awaiting the beginning of the Paralympics, at which old boy Tom Aggar (1995-2002) hopes to repeat his Olympic rowing gold from Beijing in 2008.