Track star in the family!




The 4x100 relay team 'singing' into their baton before the race.


A couple of weeks ago Rachel had a great time competing in the MSSPP Track and Field competitions. We have no idea what MSSPP stands for, but it was a competition between schools on the island. The competition was held at the track at the University - about 30 minutes from our house.
Rachel entered four events - the 100m and 200m races, the long jump and the 4x100 relay. No one was more surprised than her when she received a gold medal for ALL 4 events!

I was able to go along and see her run two different races, which was a treat for me! What a different environment from anything we had ever been to. Dalat (Rachel's school) was the only international school competing, so the coach and the athletes from Dalat (and the few parents who came to watch) were the ONLY non-Asian people in the whole place! Many girls ran races in clothing that covered them fully from the head to the feet - can't even IMAGINE running in that heat with all of that clothing. And many, many kids ran their races barefoot - never seen that before!




Here's the team (Rachel, Theresa, Angie and Sarah) after the race - relieved and celebrating.


Rachel receiving a medal for something - don't know which one. You can see three different cultures - Canadian, Chinese and Malaysian - represented by these three girls!

In April Rachel will have the opportunity to go to the State competitions for all of these events again, so she's still training. I must say, I am wildly impressed that she can be out there, running and training, at 4:00 pm in the worst heat of the day. I am still trying to avoid any sort of exertion in the heat!

While the International students are welcome to compete at the State level, only Malaysian citizens are allowed to go further to Nationals. So the State competition will be as far as Rachel will be allowed to go - but it will still be a great experience! It will be held on the mainland portion of the state of Penang - over the 13 km bridge that connects us to the mainland. She will probably compete on four different days again, so maybe we'll get to see here there as well!

Neat experiences for our kids - and so we live vicariously through them!

Until next time,

Karin

Comments

Anonymous said…
Way to go Rachel. From one athlete to the other you are awesome; keep up the good work. Karin, I enjoyed looking at your pictures today. We hope and pray that you are all doing well.
April 21, 2009 at 7:34 AM
Anonymous said…
ps. this is Kari Elliott (the other aspiring athlete in se asia)
April 21, 2009 at 7:34 AM
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