Both Junior and Senior sports days attract a huge audience of parents. All four School Houses compete with one another in a fierce but friendly manner for the coveted Sports Shield and March Past Shield. Everyone from teacher to student works hard to make this meet a grand success. Students eagerly participate in varied events like Athletics, Long jump, High jump, Discus Throw, Drill and Parade. The Kiddies’ Sports meet is a star event during the year where the tiny tots exhibit their skills, cheered on by parents, grandparents, and well-wishers.

The 36th Annual Inter House Athletics Meet was held on 10th February 2018. However, the athletic fever began to pervade the campus well before the actual day, with athletes practicing hard every day since the day school reopened. The majority of the track and field events were held on the 1st, 2nd and 5th of February. Two new meet records were set this year. In the ‘A’ Division for girls, Adhiti S. Prakash of Godavari set a new meet record in the Long Jump event with a distance of 4.32 m. She beat R. Preetha’s record of 4.08 m set in 1991. Taraa Gurunath of Godavari beat her own record of 1.28 m set last year for ‘B’ Division High Jump by clearing a height of 1.39 m this year.

The actual meet on the 10th, began with the Chief Guest Mr. T.S. Balasubramaniam, DIG (Retd) ICG and Administrative Head of TCS, Siruseri, being welcomed by the Board of Trustees. This was followed by the march past of the athletes led by Aakash Jajoo, the Head Boy and Nidhi Sajit Menon, the Head Girl, and by Nikhil Bhaiya and Laila Lakshmi Punja, the Games Captains. They were followed by the four houses, led by their House Captains and the School Band. The senior contingents were followed by their junior counterparts. The school ground was decked in the house colours of yellow, blue, red and green. The eye-catching decorations at the house tents were much appreciated.

Once the four houses congregated at the centre of the field, the school flag was hoisted, the games torch was lit, and the Chief Guest declared the meet open.

Following this, the House Captains took an oath of sportsmanship in a solemn ceremony. There was a ‘Surprise’ in store for everyone when the drill turned out to be a flash mob. Students of Classes 6 to 8 took to the field and danced to some very popular movie songs. The audience were in for another bigger surprise when some of the teachers and a few senior students joined in towards the end. It was a lovely sight which left the audience smiling and swaying. The athletic events began with the 100m dash for boys and girls of all the divisions, the 200m race for the A division and the 400m race for the B division. The athletes gave of their best in these races, showing true skill, grit and determination. These were succeeded by the 10 X 50m Shuttle Relay for Classes 3 & 4 and the widely anticipated Mixed Relay, both of which drew much cheering from the crowd. There was also a race for the Parents which followed a baton relay between the Sishya athletes and the Sishya Alumni which was won by the present students despite the gallant efforts of the champions of yesteryear.

At the end of all the events, Sutlej house emerged as the winners followed by Godavari, Narmada and Cauvery. Sutlej won the Marching Shield for both Senior boys and Senior girls. The Junior Marching Cup was won by Narmada.

As the meet came to an end amidst the strains of “Abide With Me”, all participants were left with a sense of pride at their efforts over the past few weeks, and all those present already began to look forward to the next year’s edition. As always, the Inter House Athletics Meet proved to be a memorable event.