U13 FOBISIA Games

The FOBISIA Games started with Swimming events of Day 1. Caitlin secured the first Gold medal for the girls, with Sofia, Jasmine and Madeleine following. Georgy, Zach and Jia He also contributed with medals in their individual events. BSKL ended on a high with two Bronze medals and a Silver for the Freestyle relay teams and finished in a well-earned THIRD place in the final placings!

Next, the team geared up for an afternoon of Athletics. BSKL Lions came roaring, with 12 medals across the field events, including two Golds in High Jump (Bumi & Jasmine), two Golds in Javelin (Mika & Georgy), two Golds in Long Jump (Mika & Yara), and another Gold in Shot Put (Sofia). Although this seemed like an unbeatable start, it would later be revealed that BSKL were sitting in 4th, which only emphasizes the high level of competition.

On top of the 12 field medals, BSKL Lions secured 20 track medals (belonging to: Jazmine, Eva, Zach, Jasmine, Yara, Bumi, Mika, Kristen, Jon Tin, & Georgy). Including a stellar Gold for the Girls A 4x100m Relay (Jazmine, Yara, Jasmine, Kristen) and two Silvers for the Boys A and B 4x100m Relays (Georgy, Jia He, Jia Hong, Luke & Mika, Jon Tin, Ted, Bumi). The coaches were left speechless. They have always had high expectations for BSKL’s Athletics, but this truly blew everyone away! 

BSKL dominance was reflected in the final results: “In first place… the British School of Kuala Lumpur” in Athletics.

Day 2 started with Boys Basketball and continued with Girls Football in the afternoon. Unfortunately the boys didn’t manage to bring home a win for the team. A slow start meant the boys had to play catch-up, they started to perform better as the game progressed but missed opportunities and frustrations meant that it was just too big a mountain to climb, despite a last-minute, thrilling resurgence. Flashes of their talent throughout the tournament were enough for all the other coaches of the teams BSKL played to comment on the vast potential of BSKL’s brilliant U13 boys.

In the afternoon, the girls started the group stages with a tough match against Rugby School Thailand resulting in a lost of 4-1. They played NLCS Singapore next and it was a strong 2-0 win! In the third game of the group stages, they went against British School Jakarta. There was beautiful link up play between Heidi and Yara, Eva was fearless down the wing and Jasmine held strong as striker. Jee Ho offered valuable relief and great speed. The defensive play was perfect - Sofia and Aniek teaming up in the back to stop BSJ’s attacking play and Jazmine was solid in goal. Rita, Caitlin and Alisa were impactful with fresh legs and energetic performances. They won 3-0, finishing second in the group, and qualifying for the semi-finals!

The semi-final was against British School Manila. Although the girl’s defensive tactics were working, they simply couldn’t find the net. BSM won and went through to the finals. The last game of the tournament was against Rugby School Thailand (again!) for one more opportunity for a trophy in the Bronze medal match. RST went 2-0 up in the first half. With a formation change, Sofia put the team on the scoreboard and the girls pushed forward into full attack, looking for the equalizer to at least get them into extra-time, but in the final minutes RST managed to score another goal. The final score was 3-1 and BSKL settled for 4th place. The girls never gave up and played some of their best football this season.

The last day were the Girls Basketball and Boys Football. The boys football team went into the tournament with a huge amount of belief and confidence. A draw against Rugby School Thailand in the first game 2-2 followed up by victories in the games against the British School of Jakarta 1-0 and North London Collegiate School Singapore 2-1 meant that they qualified top from their group and met GIS in the semi-finals. 

In the semi-finals the boys put on a valiant effort, unfortunately going down 2-0 and then came agonizingly close to 3rd place, just losing out to the British School of Jakarta on penalties. The boys fought for every ball, ran for every minute of every game. Georgy and Bumi scored the goals for BSKL, but every single member of the team contributed to what was a wonderful performance, and although they left disappointed, they should be immensely proud of how they carried themselves during the day and how they worked as a team and really represented the values that BSKL holds dear to.

After three days of non-stop competition, it was time for everyone to get out of our sweaty kit, and into some beautiful outfits for the fabulous gala dinner! It was a night under the stars as they enjoyed a wonderful buffet - accompanied by a thrilling fire show - and lots of disco dancing as the team came together one final time. It was the perfect setting to reveal the 3rd place success in Swimming and the spectacular 1st place win in Athletics. The team screamed in delight and, after such an emotional journey across Football and Basketball, they finally felt they had received the recognition they undoubtedly deserve.

As Julie Froud, 2 x FIFA Women’s World Cup winner and 2 x Olympic Games Gold medalist said, 

“Sports not only builds better athletes, but also better people”. 

Couldn’t have said it any better.

Well done, all. Thank you to Mr Lowe, Miss Murphy, Mr O’Connor, Miss Beacroft and Mr Lewis, a very job well done to the team! The BSKL community are incredibly proud and can’t wait to do it all again next year.