Sunday, 26 August 2018

Our mathlete and our athlete

Speaking of sports...

We have had two very exciting events take place recently. Amiri's Mathex and Arram's winter sports day. 

Mathex is a fast-paced mathematics contest where teams compete against each other to answer questions as quickly as possible. Each competition has 20 questions worth 5 points each.

Each team has four members who cooperate to arrive at the answer to each question. One member of the team is the runner, who takes the team's answers to the scoring table, where, if the answer is correct, points are scored and the next question on the list is then given to the runner, who returns it to the team. 

It was great to see the level of excitement generated during this comptetition. Physical games dominate most of the attention and honors at every school I've been connected with. Here we got to watch a mental game for once. 

Last night's event was the regional Mathex, and the teams came from all over the city of Auckland. (1.4 million population) The kids shown in this post represent the top mathletes in what's called year 7 here...grade 6 in the U.S. Glen Eden Intermediate School, GEIS, brought two teams.  They both did well. 

Here are some pictures and a video from it. 


Mathex was held at a sports complex on Auckland's East side.  


 We've just arrived. Amiri is with his team and we have seats nearby.



Anticipation.



 The teams are being called down to their tables.



 Pulses are pounding.



They are located just below us. We will have a good view.


 It has started. Amiri's team's runner is taking off with the first of the answers.


Arram's homemade sign is for G. E. I. S. 




 As you see, both Glen Eden, (GLE), teams did well. Amiri's team was the one with the score of 80. The kids lamented that they had another correct answer in their hands when the buzzer sounded, ending the game, but they couldn't have their runner take it in....

Here is the video. Amiri's team is in green and white, to the left of center, in the foreground. Amiri's back is to the camera.

At the beginning of the video, the team's runner is at the scoring table. He's standing about one-third of the way down the scoring table from the left end. He will very shortly be dashing back to his team and they'll work on the next problem. Then, he takes off again with the new answer.





Arram's Winter Sports Day gave the kids in year 5 and 6 the opportunity to play rugby, soccer, net ball (a version of basketball) or in some non-traditional games. Arram of course chose soccer. 

The soccer event was held at Henderson High School where they had room enough for all the teams to play. I counted 12 games going on at one time. Arram told me I may have missed some. And each team played 5 or 6 games, depending on if they were in the finals. Jeanne and I were able to watch three of the 1/2 hour-long games. It was very exciting stuff. 




The high school is on Henderson Valley Road, about 1/4 mile from downtown. 



The Summerland sports uniform


About mid-field, Arram gets some real power behind his kick and sends the ball well down field.


This was really exciting. You can't see Arram very well here, but that's his foot and he has just kicked a good one.  The ball is going to make it past that close defender's foot and go between the goal post and the fore-ground defender for a goal. (it came straight in line with the camera)  
It only stopped when it banged into grandpa's left shin. I didn't mind a bit. That's the sort of thing that can happen when the photographer is standing behind the goal posts. 



Nice job you guys.



Time out between games two and three. A caramel UP&GO is fast nutrition.
(looks like we're going a commercial) 


Pre-game huddle.



Look at the level of effort.



Arram's on it...



The battle for the ball continues.

It turned out that Arram's team placed. They came in third! Who-hoo! We are of course very proud of him and of his team.            -djf

4 comments:

  1. O my how exciting that short video was of the Mathex contest! I had to watch it twice - I see that the runners had to go all the way around their respective teams' column and couldn't take a short cut on their way back with the next question. It looks like there were dozens if not hundreds of teams at Mathex! what a cool event!

    And Arram! what a totally awesome, focused (and did I mention HANDSOME?) young man! Looks like he had a very worthy opponent in that barefoot player - can you imagine how tough his feet are?

    I'm so glad you all get to witness and support these amazing events!

    Loved the uniforms too. Go GREEN & WHITE Glen Eden and BLUE & GOLD Summerland!

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    Replies
    1. We are very fortunate grandparents....

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    2. That math competition is really something. What an operation! Amiri's team did great and I loved seeing his smiles and excitement. Arram's games were action packed and the photography was stellar. He has grown into a handsome young man also. You are very lucky to have such wonderful grandchildren. McKenzie

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    3. I agree that we're lucky. More than I can say.

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