It was a debut to savour for St Saviour’s (SSI) after they were crowned champions of the Council of British International Schools (COBIS) Junior Games.
The Nigerian school had lost the Football Cup final 3-0, but they had accumulated 550 points, enough to hold off hosts British School Al Khubairat A (BSAK A) and St Catherine’s British School Athens (SCBSA), who finished joint-second with 520 points each.
International School Moscow (ISM) finished third as the event came to a close at Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
With the competition attracting over 200 students aged 10-11 years from 15 schools worldwide, Sadiq Momodu, SSI coach, admitted the result came as a shock to the whole team.
He said: “It’s amazing we came this far and won this competition. We never thought we would be able to do this. We came here and surprised many people. The students worked really hard and it’s a real credit to everyone.”
Sarah Swartjes, 11, said: “I’m really excited as this is our first time and we came this far to win the competition. This is a proud moment for me.”
Olamide Ayeni, 10, added: “I’m so glad that we won this on our first time; it’s an experience I will always remember.”
SSI’s achievement was hailed by Colin Bell, COBIS CEO, who hopes the games will inspire students to take up sport professionally.
“It’s SSI’s first COBIS activity and to win this is a remarkable achievement," said Bell. "Overall, all the students showed tremendous talent and put in a lot of hard work.”
Meanwhile, a brace from Vicktor Zentrich and a strike from Max Garagic helped Prague British School (PBS) win the Football Cup competition 3-0 over SSI at the Dome in Abu Dhabi.
And Egypt British International School (EBIS) edged past St George’s Luxembourg (SGL) 1-0 in the Plate final.
While next year’s Games will take place in Athens, Bell said BSAK raised the bar for the organisation.
“We never imagined that it would be such a success. We had every confidence that BSAK would deliver a wonderful Games and Jo Czerpak, deputy head teacher of co-curricular education at BSAK, led the Games in such a fashion that it would be very hard to beat this standard in the future," added Bell.
