EUROPEAN SCHOOL VARESE EUROSPORT 13/3-16/3 Team 2024 – How did we do ?
Day 3 – BOYS FOOTBALL and GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
We left on Day 2 with Varese top 3 in the overall ranking after a superb Boys Volleyball win and a very good 7th place ranking at Girls Football. Brussels 1 leading the standings with a day 1, 2nd and 1st place respectively.
Friday morning our student-athletes round up at LUXII school @08.30 arriving from their hosting families. Half hour warm up then the games begin.
Both tournaments as per day 2 structured with a round robin of 4 games.
Based on the morning round robin placement in the afternoon the team plays 1-4th, 5-8th , 9-12th , 13-18th place playoffs.
Football Boys 2x10min halves, tough start then manage a W. On the last game of 4 they come back from behind but on the stroke of full time the opposing side scores. 2W – 2L ->9th-12th playoff. Where they win the 1st game and lose the second ranking them 10th. Overall 2W-3L
Girls Volleyball starts off better with a 3W – 1L, the loss against the team eventually won the event Alicante. The playoffs for 5-8th start in the afternoon after lunch with 1W and then 1L this grants them a very good 6th Spot. Overall 4W-2L
Day 3 sporting activities end @17.30 when they return to their hosting families to get ready for a student party organised by LUXII student committee.
Day 4 – TEAM events: badminton & Aquathlon
Badminton
Saturday 16/3 starts @07.30 with badminton. Again round robin 3 games in the early morning then 2 before lunch. Each game is made up of 3 sets Doubles Boys, 3 Sets Doubles girls, 3 sets Mixed team. Varese qualify for the 5-8th spot play offs. Play off start with a L then a tight second match ends up with a W. Overall 3W-2L grants a 7th Place.
Aquathlon
In the afternoon…Aquathlon. The race is set as 600m run – transition to swim – 75m swim – transition to run – 400m run then the leg band gets strapped off and on to the next relay athlete. Altogether for 20 athletes alternating girl boy girl boy…
This event bears double points, if all other events give 18 point to the winner and 1 point to last place, Aquathlon provides 36 to the winning team and 2 to last place.
Varese start well, they are top 5/6 in the 1st leg, 2nd leg climb up a spot, 3rd leg another position gained, 4th leg again one more positioned gained, 5th leg neck to neck with the 1st place.. 6th leg Varese is now breaking away!
From then the 7th leg on every single athlete added a little piece of win by distancing the opposition. When the 20th relay arrives Varese are clocking over 2mins advantage on 2nd place Alicante.
Varese cross the final finish line as Aquathlon winners with a dominating team effort.
Where the other teams end up decides where Varese ends up in the Overall standings.
Watch the last Varese relay athlete crossing the finish line solo
Final Ceremony
At the Final ceremony a little confusion on the scoring but eventually out of the 18 participating SCHOOLS…
1st LUX1: 101 points
2nd VARESE: 100
3rd ALICANTE: 99
VARESE end up 2nd overall just 1 point from the winners!!!
Although the team was disappointed this is an incredible achievement and BIG BIG KUDOS to athletes and coaches!
Goodbyes and Journey Back
After the ceremony time to pack up, love and leave and stack the bags in the Bus trunk.
One last event prior to departure, a final dinner with the Parma school with whom Varese has built a very good relationship.
The boys and girls have dinner and share their phone numbers with their Parmesan peers eventually departing around 23:00 hours.
Sunday 17/3 Varese @08.30
After an overnight journey, the bus arrives at school safe and sound (well done driver) to be welcomed by their parents. Tired but very happy faces.