FOBISIA Games Thailand

From November 13^th - November 17^th, 40 Students and 4 members of staff attended the Under 15 (U15) FOBISIA Games in Thailand.  The FOBISIA Games is a multi-sports tournament which sees both Boys & Girls compete in Basketball, Football, Swimming & Athletics.

The students had been training since the start of term and their hard work was very evident on the opening day of the tournament. We won a plethora of medals on the Track & Field stage and KTJ’s 1^st ever medals for Swimming in the B division competition. 

Our performance in the Athletics stadium earned us our first trophy of the games! We finished 3^rd overall in a combined boys & girls performance.  It was a momentous occasion for us as it was the first time KTJ had placed within the top 3 in our FOBISIA B group history.  Our victory over local rivals the British International School of KL (BISKL) by 1 point made the moment even sweeter!

Our Friday evening was spent relaxing and enjoying Thai food on a beach front restaurant. The students quickly made friends and mingled with the other schools - it was a very enjoyable evening.

Common themes of the Games are busy days and evenings followed by early breakfasts!  Team KTJ were up and into breakfast by 6.30am (each day!) and got straight into carb loading for the Boys Football & Girls Basketball on the Saturday.

The Girls Basketball started very promisingly recording 2 victories in their opening 2 games against BISKL & British School Guangzhou (BSG).  Next up were the host school, St Andrews, which fielded 2 International Thai players.  Our girls put a brave performance, but came away defeated.  After another defeat to a very organized and powerful Bangkok Prep school, we face the British School of Beijing (BSBSY) in which turned out to be a 3^rd & 4^th place play off.  It was an epic game and KTJ found themselves 1 point down with 30 seconds to play.  Out of nowhere, Yii Ping of NQH Girls landed a 2 point jump shot to put KTJ up by 1 pt!  With 10 seconds to play Yii Ping increased the lead to 3 points by shooting 2 free throws putting the game completely out of reach for the opposition! Amazing achievement! The girls and coaches celebrated wildly at the end full time buzzer and very quickly, went to congratulate the other team on a close game!

Our Boys Football team was dominant from the first game!  A 5-1 victory against BSG and a 2-1 win against Bangkok Prep set the team up nicely for a chance of a medal.  Game 3 saw another win; this time we beat BISKL 1-0.  Next up were BSBSY, and we won that game too.  The final game for KTJ Boys Football was against the hosts.  St Andrews were up for the game, home advantage a large with a vocal crowd.  It was KTJ that started well, quickly going 1-0 up, then 2-0 and then 3-0.  The home crowd had been silenced and the better team was victorious.  1^st place in the Boys Football and 3^rd place in the Girls Basketball…..what a day!

The following day was the Boys Basketball & Girls Football.  The team were tired, but in high spirits following the performances over the first two days.   The Girls football team started well and recorded an opening victory, however tiredness and some injuries saw our team eventually lose 3 games, despite the great effort the girls put forwrad.  Before the final fixture, the girls picked themselves up and played a fantastic game. They won their final game and finished 4^th overall!

The Boys Basketball Squad went into the tournament buzzing.  Many of the players had already won the football and the other squad members fed of their energy!   The opening 4 games saw victories against BISKL, BSG, Bangkok Prep and BSBSY.  The final game (again) was the decider between…the hosts, STAGV (again!) and KTJ.  Both teams had virtually exact performances against the opposition teams.  We knew that this game would be massive.

KTJ started in great fashion! The team captain and Point Guard, Wei Qin, hit an unbelievable 3 pointer in the opening minute of the game, which settled our nerves.  The rest of the quarter was even, and it finished 6-5 in favour of KTJ.  The second quarter was dominated by KTJ and we finished the quarter 11 points up, thanks to some great rebounding by Low Zishi, Wei Loong and Bu Nian Yi, which in turn helped Terrence Choo and Wei Qin score point after point!.  The third and fourth periods began just like the first; tense and entertaining!  KTJ finished the game winning by 4 points and remained unbeaten in all team games – Football & Basketball.

The games ended with a wonderful Gala dinner, with dinner and dancing into the night at the impressive Thai Cultural and Arts center. 

On behalf of all staff, I would like to say how proud we are of each and every squad member.  Not only were our teams victorious in many areas, but they displayed true class and sportsmanship during the entire competition…the real qualities needed to be a true athlete!