Participating in Track and Field

This year I tried a new sport which I haven’t been a part of before. For my 2^nd semester of 11^th grade at the Overseas School of Colombo I challenged myself to participate in track and field with an aim to improve my fitness and health. I wanted to improve my endurance and speed because these skills are required in most sports I do such as football and basketball, and besides that I always saw our school’s top athletes participating in track and field which activated me to try track and field . I knew that from the rough and tough practices the coaches provide for track and field I will become an athlete by the season ends, and as our coach Mrs. Turner said when I was wondering about track and field:

“You will not regret it, at the end you will become an athlete”

With this mind set I began my journey with the track and field team on Monday and Wednesday after school along with Saturday mornings where we did intense workouts containing several components of track events along with field events. This blog will be focused on the challenged that has been undertaken along with the commitment to track and field.

Track and field sessions began from late-mid February. The 1^st few sessions from mid to end February were very tough for me because I never did any track and field practices before and wasn’t used to continuous running by which after every practices I had a sore body and had minimum time to recover for my next practice. I didn’t regret it because I knew this will happen when I join track and field. This continued for around 3 to 5 practices and during those times I also had to manage school work such as revisions for tests and assignments which I found was tough to manage. This was mainly because my body wasn’t suitable for these extreme athletics however as practices went along I got used to the practices and progressed a lot with my fitness. As a result, these starting few practices had a positive impact as it made my body work on school tasks under tough and tired conditions which will be helpful to increase my productivity at different health levels.

As practices progressed I got more involved with the track and field team consisting of athletes from grade 6 to grade 12. This diversity of athletes in the track and field team was something which I found very interesting because all the sports I’ve participate at my school consisted of athletes above 9^th grade only, and the track team also consisted of athletes which are involved in various other sports such as swimming, basketball, football, and volleyball. In track and field I was able to communicate with some younger athletes as well which I wouldn’t have on regular school days. One of the greatest advantage I found in participating in track and field was getting many support from other athletes on the ground and learning from them. I was new to track and field and didn’t have much knowledge of the techniques and procedure of track and field however I was grateful to have such supportive members and coaches which guided me through the practices. During the practices I didn’t know if I am a sprinter or a long distance runner, so I tried both but we were still unsure. At the end I was selected to train for long distance running by which my training from then onward practices were focused on long distance training, however some days I did try sprinting trainings. On Saturdays we focused on field events in which I practiced long jump and shot put which I enjoyed a lot. Saturday’s weren’t as intense as weekdays but required commitment for practicing field events.

It was the month of March when the team selection for SAISA Track and Field tournament was to be made. Everyone was very enthusiastic about the selections and I had been practicing for some weeks. However I had a doubt of not making into the team because I had missed some practices which were important due to my commitment in Colombo Model United Nations (COMUN) which was going parallel with track and field. The important dates I missed were the trial days on which coaches take trial results and data of athletes in various running and field events and depending on the results the team was to be selected. Other than that there were some morning practices on the days when there wasn’t track and field.  Out of these days some were opportunity days where athletes could get there trials and I couldn’t make to neither of these due to the distance of my home and the school. I had a feeling that I might not have a chance of making into the team, and afterwards I didn’t make the team because I didn’t have any results due to other commitments I had as stated by the coach. Before signing up for COMUN in the beginning of my 11^th grade I had analyzed the school calendar and had a plan for my after school activities. I could have done COMUN and be 100% committed to track and field because they were on opposite days however during early February some changes were made on the COMUN schedule dates which crashed on the trials days and by which I couldn’t commit myself to track and field for the trial days.

I was very excited for track and field since the beginning of 11^th grade because the tournament was hosted in Chennai, India, which I can afford to travel for. It was the 1^st SAISA tournament in the past 3 years which I was able to afford. Since the starting of the year I was looking forward for track and field but at the end the uncertain changes in COMUN dates caused my plan and goal of track and field to be diminished. After the rejection from the team I didn’t feel sad because it wasn’t the first time I haven’t made a SAISA team, in fact in my previous posts on sports and since the past years I haven’t made any single SAISA teams due to cost issues but I realized that this year I should have made a better decision of doing either COMUN or track and field more than doing both because they both require 100% of my commitment.

Besides studying, my other passion is in sports. I either find myself studying or participating in athletic activities such as volleyball in season 1 and football in season 2. If I could restart this year I would have made better decision of participating and being committed in SAISA track and field in season 3 instead of COMUN which was initial goal of 11^th grade to participate and travel for SAISA track and field and not have missed an opportunity to participate in SAISA. COMUN might be something which I wanted to try out but track and field was my desire for this year.  From this I learned that not everything goes as we have planned, there are always some uncertainties in the plan we create and being committed to one specific activity is more valuable than having too many commitments.

However track and field was a success for me as I was able to get faster and improve my athletics, lifestyle, and health. At the end I didn’t regret it because I improved more than what I was expecting. There’s always ‘next year’ to try out for SAISA sports  however this will be my first and last time participating in track and field because next year I will preparing for my IB exams. My school has been champions for SAISA track and field for the 3 consecutive times with breaking many SAISA records and I would like to wish them all the best for the upcoming tournaments and hope that the trophy remains at our home.

Some footages of track and field is blended with the ‘Season 3 SAISA video’ which can be seen here.