Article by Josh Miller
Photograph by Shiho Kasai
On April 7th, the final school bell sounded and marked the start of the week-long April break, in which students and teachers alike had time off from school and work. However, for ISM’s elite third season athletes, the start of April break was the culmination of months of hard work as they battled it out at the IASAS competitions across Southeast Asia.
An area of great interest for sports enthusiasts who follow IASAS conventions is that of the inaugural baseball for boys and fast-pitch softball for girls, hosted by Singapore American School (SAS). The change was met with mixed responses, but ultimately ISM’s boys and girls teams gained experiences they can learn from in the following years, having both finished 4th.
Elsewhere, ISM’s track and field athletes headed to ISB where they ran, jumped, and threw as best they could. Collectively, the boys and girls teams won 5th and 4th respectively, but a total of six gold, five silver, and two individual bronze medals were won while multiple records were broken. Junior thrower Ryan S. managed to break the long-standing ISM boys record for the discus throw while fellow junior Sasha K. leapt her way into the IASAS record books with an incredible 11.23 meter triple jump. To cap it off, senior speedster Trinity M. shattered the IASAS 200-meter record with a time of 24.88 seconds. When asked how she felt about her last IASAS, Trinity said, “I hadn’t performed well in any of the meets leading up to IASAS.” However, after recovering her form, she says, “My last IASAS experience was absolutely unforgettable.”
Meanwhile, ISM played host to the annual IASAS Badminton and Golf tournaments this year. While the badminton matches were played on ISM’s very own courts, ISM’s ATAC department opted to move the golf tournament closer to the designated golf course in Malarayat, Batangas, so IASAS athletes were housed together and could play all day. The girls team came in 5th while the exceptionally young boys team brought home the bronze. Outgoing senior Georgina P. shared that the results are “not representative of the talent and potential of our team.” Georgina feels as though the underclassmen will “make leaps and bounds next year” and that ISM Golf’s future is bright!
Manila’s magic proved to be real for yet another year, as although both ISM’s boys and girls badminton teams could not scrape a single win after day 1, they both bounced back on day 2 and 3. ISM’s girls team successfully edged out their competition to take the bronze medal while ISM’s boys badminton team made arguably one of the greatest comebacks in IASAS history by winning ISM its first IASAS Boys Badminton gold medal ever.
As with every season, ISM’s Bearcat athletes have made waves in the international scene. That concludes the competitive sporting IASAS school year, and we hope that Manila’s top student-athletes come back next school year with even more success awaiting them.