Move over Bolt!

After amazing scenes in London this morning with the Men's 100 metres we had some equally amazing scenes here in Sydney at the Balgowlah Heights Public School Athletics Carnival.  


I knew Tess was a fast runner but I didn't realise how fast until the Athletics Carnival.  It's the first time I've been able to attend the carnival (another bonus of not working any more) and it's seriously impressive.  It's held at the Australian Institute of Sport which is a purpose built training facility quite near to us and it has all sorts of sophisticated paraphernalia including an electronic timing system, loud speakers for announcements and a grand stand.  Tess had chosen to enter the 200m and the 100m (she got knocked out of the final heats for the long jump at school last Friday) and I raced to the Institute as the 200m race was first off the blocks.  

You can see from the photos that she came first in the 200m in her particular heat - they didn't have time to do a final so the winner will be based on best time which has not yet been published - it looked very fast to me.  


The 100m heat came next and once again she came first.

The girl in blue next to her is a good friend called Hana and the two of them spurred each other on and had a ball - it was great!  The finalists were chosen based on their times and there was a nail-biting hour whilst we waited for the times to be posted.  This is what we saw:

As you can see, she came third out of all the girls who did the heats and therefore qualified for the 100m final!  


I think I was more nervous than her when it was time for the race to begin.  

The photo above was taken just before the finish line and you can see that she came a very respectable 2nd.  This means she qualifies for the District competitions to run against winners from other local schools.  


Whilst we were still recovering from all this excitement Tess was asked to run in the 400m relay for her school house along with 3 of the other fastest runners from across the 8-10 age group.  Her house ended up coming second.  


Jules and I are at a loss to work out where her sporting prowess comes from.  Secretly I suspect it's me - I was just never able to achieve my potential ;)


Tom was at the carnival too doing lots of fun games with his class mates.  He also ran the 100m although didn't quite achieve the same level of glory as his sister.  

Tom second from left

After the carnival Tess went on to do a 30 minute tennis lesson and a 45 minute Jazz lesson which are her normal Monday afternoon activities.  She had a long soak in a hot bath after dinner to soothe her aching muscles and we expect her to sleep very soundly tonight!