AUSTRALIA COLLECTED THE MOST AWARDS AT THE CROSS COUNTRY WORLD SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIP
On Saturday, at the 2016 ISF Cross-Country World Schools Championship hosted by Hungarian School Sport Federation (HSSF), the Hungarian national girl team finished at the 6th place, the Hungarian boy team finished at 7th place, and in the individual category, Tíra Pavuk finished at 10th place. The large-scale event organized in Nagyrét at the Margaret Island closed with a great success. The championship welcomed more than 400 high school athletes from 24 different countries, who competed in 5 different races on the grass courts. A new introduction at the school championship had also debuted in Hungary this year: children of learning disadvantages were given the opportunity to compete at the event for the first time. The president of the international federation was also fairly impressed by the attitude and organizing accomplishment of the Hungarian staff.
The start pistols in this year’s competitions of ISF (International School Sport Federation) organized in Budapest were shot by hobby runner Erika Miklósa, Kossuth- and Liszt Award holder opera singer, and Alexandra Szalay-Bobrovniczky, deputy-mayor of Budapest city. In the first two races, the school teams were competing: among boys, the Turkish school team came out as winner, and for the girls, the Australian team triumphed, also collecting gold medals in the individual and the team category. The Hungarian girl team of Bolyai János High School from Salgótarján finished at 18th place, and the boy team of Szent István High School from Budapest finished at 13th place.
The school teams’ battle was followed by the national teams’ competition, where the boy and girl category was also championed by the team of Morocco. The Hungarian girl team finished at 6th place and the boy team finished at 7th place. In the individual category, Tíra Pavuk finished at 10th place.
In the final ranking, the Australian youngsters triumphed by winning three gold, two silver and one bronze medals in total.
ISF president Laurent Petrynka expressed his highest appreciation for the Hungarian organizing and for keeping the spirit of the competition:
„I would like to highlight two important matters of this event: The first one is the professionalism of the organizing team. It is much impressing how Hungarian School Sport Federation have organized the visit of the athletes and their accompanying guests, and to my knowledge their efforts were largely supported by the city’s local government as well. The accommodation, the transport, and the engaging of the different nations into their programs were all arranged in a very professional manner. The other highlight for me has been the great spirit of the event. ISF not only considers this competition very important, but also emphasizes the support for education and the support for sports, which came true in these events really beautifully.”
The commenting for the prestigious international sport event had been provided by reporter and former athlete Tamás Gajdos in English and Hungarian, and the livestream was made accessible online all over the world through ISF’s YouTube channel. The implementation of the championship was also supported by 150 young volunteers.
„Luckily, there was no malfunction at the competitions, everything worked as it should. All I could see was smiling faces, the athletes were having a great time! The delegates of ISF congratulated us multiple times for implementing the event in such great quality that may be exceptional in the history of world schools championships” HSSF president Gábor Balogh revealed proudly.
„We received many positive feedbacks, but to be honest Hungary has always been great host for international events, and really we did want to live up to these expectations. It is our goal to ensure a great experience for the children, and also to support Budapest’s aspiration to host the 2024 Olympic Games were HSSF may contribute to the organizing of pre- and accompanying competitions as well.” The president added.
The photo gallery of the event implemented between 21-26 April is available at HSSF’s Flickr site.
