Hosts British School Al Khubairat ‘A’ (BSAK A) sealed the swimming championship after winning 11 medals at the Council of British International Schools Junior Games and immediately went joint-top of the overall standings.
The Abu Dhabi school were fifth overall after day one of the games, but picked up three golds, five silvers and three bronze medals in the pool events at the Armed Forces Officers Club.
BSAK A now share the top spot with Nigeria’s St Saviours Ikoyi (SSI), who finished second in the swim competition with one gold, four silvers and four bronze medals.
Egypt British International School (EBIS) sealed third spot (six golds and one bronze) thanks to a clean sweep in the boys’ category.
Golden boys: Ahmed Moataz (l) and Abdul Rahman Sabry of EBIS.
For BSAK ‘A’, Molly Rooke (breaststroke) and Cassandra Gottschalk (butterfly) triumphed, with team-mate Cora Bridgeman second in the fly. Gottschalk then returned to win silver in the freestyle.
Ethan Collings (breaststroke, silver), Ebraham Al Mussalam (butterfly, bronze) and William Nicholas (backstroke, bronze) picked up individual medals, while the team won silver in the boy’s 4x50m freestyle and medley relays.
BSAK ‘A’ coach Michael McFarlane praised the efforts of his team, saying: "The kids have been brilliant. They have trained really hard and some did extra sessions outside of school especially for this competition.
“Swimming is part of our curriculum so a lot of our students have experience of the sport.”
Among the stand-out performers were EBIS students Abdul Rahman Sabry and Ahmed Moatez, who won four gold medals each.
Home run: Tishe Deji Roberts of Temple School won the 50m breaststroke.
Sabry, 12, won the backstroke as well as the freestyle and completed his haul with wins in the medley and freestyle relays.
“In the past few weeks, we did a lot of training for this competition. And to finish the swimming event with these medals is something I’m extremely happy with,” said Sabry.
And relay team-mate Moatez, 11, who finished first in the butterfly and breaststroke was equally delighted with his performance.
“It feels really good to win these medals," said Moatez. "All the races were tough because all the swimmers were good and we knew this before the start of the day.”
The football tournament at Armed Forces Officers Club concludes the three-day competition, after which the overall winner will be announced.
