JEDDAH — The Annual Sports Meet (HAYASPO’18) of Al Hayat-1 International School, Jeddah was held at Al Askan Stadium. The program commenced with the recitation of a few verses from the Holy Qur’an by Abdul Basith. The chief guest of the day Yahya Ahmed Al Shalani, supervisor of the Ministry of Education, along with the other dignitaries, received the salute during the parade and hoisted the sports day flag.

School Operations Manager Abdullah Misbahi, who presided over the function, raised the flag. Principal Anvar Shaja Vengaseeri welcomed the gathering. During the oath taking ceremony, Sports Captain Aiman Abdul Jaleel recited the pledge.

This was followed by a spectacular mass drill display by Al Hayat-1 students of Diamond house, Emerald house, Ruby house, Sapphire house, scouts and karate boys. A variety of mass drills and star formation followed offering a visual treat to the audience.

The chief guest, in his address, stated that sports is an important extracurricular activity as it releases mental tension, improves personality and develops public relationship and children should spare time for sports on daily basis.

On his part, Abdulla Al Sabahi said that sports is an important activity and education itself. It develops all round development of the body, mind and soul. It builds fine physic and develops energy to learners to learn lessons, helps to build team spirit. He also said “winners win, winners lose and winners play”. Healthy competitions rule the mind to reach mark of excellence.

Various sports events like 50m race,100m race, 200m race, 400m race, hurdles, balloon breaking, fire ball, tug of war and 4X100m relay were held. Winners were awarded with trophies and medals.

Abdul Majeed Perichikkal and the principal in their address thanked the conveners, staff of Al Hayat-1 School, parents, and all present. Padmarajan, the headmaster, awarded the individual championships trophies.

The following boys bagged the individual championships trophies. Mini boys – Ajsal and Muhammed Mustafa, Sub Junior boys – Sreehari Prabhakaran, Junior boys – Umair Muhammad and Senior boys – Master Yusuf Neamatullah. Abdullah Misbahi, the manager, awarded the footballers trophies. The following boys bagged the trophies.

Junior Category: Best player – Mohammed Waleed Jamali. Best goalkeeper – Ayush C Anil. Top scorer – Hadi Habeeb.

Senior Category: Best player – Aiman Abdul Jaleel , Best goalkeeper – Arshad Azmath, Top scorer – Ahmed Abdul Rasheed.

All athletics and games were held under the supervision of the teachers. The day was marked with enthusiasm, excitement and vigor among the students. All drew hearty applause from the crowd, a suitable appreciation for weeks of hard work.

Emerald house was adjudged the champions of the day with the highest score 142 points and Ruby house was declared the runners up with 108 points. Diamonds bagged the third place with 90 points and Sapphire was in the fourth position with 72 points.

The program conveners were Abdul Rasheed and Abdul Jaleel Palempadiyan. The animators of the Houses were Jaleel. P.K, Syed Numan (Emerald), Asaad Ismail, Ibnu Shareef ( Ruby), Mustaq Mir, Khalid Al Mutairi (Diamond), Islam and Muhammad Ali (Sapphire). Scoreboard in charge was Anil Kumar.

The lowering of the school sports day flag, marking the end of the closing ceremony, was done ceremoniously in the presence of the principal and the other staff. The program concluded with the singing of the Saudi National Anthem followed by Indian National Anthem. — SG