Dubai English Speaking School enjoyed a superb outing at the British Schools in the Middle East (BSME) Games tournament in Bahrain last week as they finished joint top of the podium.
DESS had to share first place with the Doha school, but they could reflect on winning the swimming, netball and athletics competitions.
DESS also competed in the football and basketball sections, finishing fifth in both. A team of 36 children and six staff were sent to the tournament, which was hosted by St Christopher’s School in the Qatari capital.
It was a superb achievement for the school, which had not tasted overall success at the tournament for three years. The DESS team dominated Friday’s swimming, with special mention going to Oli Hall (25m breaststroke) and the girls’ 4 x 25m front crawl relay team (Isobel, Hana, Maisy and Eve) who both broke school records.
Attention then turned to the football and netball competitions.
Trophy-laden: DESS students.
The footballers were placed in a very tough pool, alongside BSME football champions, St Christopher’s.
The boys played some tough matches and fought hard during the tournament to finish third in their pool, before they thrashed the British International School of Riyadh 4-0 in the fifth/sixth place playoff.
The girls netball team became 2016 champions in thrilling fashion, fighting back to win having been 5-3 down at one stage of the final to DESS Doha.
The basketball team also fought hard but like the football team, they were also placed in a tough pool and finished third. That saw them once again face a play-off against British School of Riyadh for fifth position, and once again they dominated with an impressive 8-0 win.
The final event of the day was athletics.
The DESS Dubai team were up against the strength of DESS Doha to finish top of the podium. The competition was split, with the boys competing in field events first while the girls took to the track.
Highlights of the meet included Nathan Wastie and Hana Sultan winning the shot put, Maisy Dickson breaking a school record in the high jump and Oli Hall winning the high jump.
The DESS performances on the track and in the field were a highlight of the afternoon and all athletes played a huge part in coming first place overall. The tournament ended with a gala dinner on Saturday evening and the awards presentation.
Upon arrival back in Dubai the team was greeted at the airport and an assembly was held to acknowledge the efforts.
The school thanked the teachers, – Miss Lambson (swimming), Mr Webster (football), Miss Luck (netball/basketball) and Mr Palmer-Myers (athletics/basketball), and their sponsors.
