Staff Olympics

Five teams were set to take part in a week of different challenges and tasks, finishing off with an Old School Sports Day.

Day 1 - SOLVE IT

Day 1 of the much anticipated Staff Olympics was SOLVE IT, which was a great place to pick up some early points, with varying tasks including a memory challenge. Participants were given a minute to memorise as many Olympic countries as possible from a list and had to recite as many as they could at the end of all the other tasks. The second stop was an Agility test whereby the speed and agility of the teams were tested around a marked out course. All competitors were timed and the times were ranked from all participants. They then went back to another mind challenge “Name the GB Olympic stars”, with some world famous stars such as Jessica Ennis, Mo Farrah and Victoria Pendleton to guess, we thought this round would be an easy one to pick up points, but the majority of competitors found this task very challenging and only managed to name a few. Team USA were the only team to get full marks! On to the 4^th challenge - the Football Keepy ups. Participants had a minute to get as many Keepy ups as possible, if they managed to do so for the duration there were bonus points on offer but this was narrowly missed by Team China.  The 5^th task was the most difficult of the day the “Olympic Rings Number Puzzle.” The challenge was similar to a Soduku in an Olympic rings format; some competitors took the full 10 minutes to complete this challenge with only about half the competitors solving the puzzle!

At the end of day 1 spirits were high and Russia took an early lead with 60 points followed closely by China on 57. There was all to play for on day 2 in the MOVE IT challenge.

Day 2 - MOVE IT

Day 2 saw around 40 people taking part in a mass Zumba Class in Ethos Sports Hall; there was a combination of our Staff Olympics competitors (mainly complete beginners) and regular Zumba-goers. The instructor Jackie got everybody into the dancing mood and was very impressed with the rhythm of the whole class.

10 bonus points were up for grabs if a team had all their members present but unfortunately nobody managed it, but still a great turnout by all nations involved. The Zumba class had bumped China up into joint 1^st with Russia. Overall everyone got into the groove and MOVE IT was a great success!

Day 3 - SCORE IT

Day 3 was the sports skills challenge day and teams had the task of taking on three sports specific skills including a Basketball Free Throw, a Football Penalty and a Golf Putt. The competitors were up against the clock in the Basketball with only 30 seconds to score as many baskets as possible from behind the free throw line. The best result of the day came from Victor Rodriguez from Team Russia who scored 6. The sports hall floor added to the challenge of the Golf Putting task where competitors had 60 seconds to putt as many winners as possible – by far the most difficult task of the day, but we saw some great performances from Team Jamaica and Team China. The final activity was the penalty shoot out; each competitor had 5 shots on goal, up against the head of the Sport Imperial Staff Olympic organising committee Andrew Bosman. They had to score as many out of the 5 as possible.

Score it saw Team Jamaica jump up into second place by scoring 26 points and leaving them only 2 points behind team China going into the final day. After such a great start to the week would team China be able to hang on to their top position?

Day 4 - OLD SCHOOL SPORTS DAY

As part of the Imperial Festival the Old School Sports Day drew in the crowds as everyone was eager to find out which nation would come out on top at the Staff Olympics. The teams arrived in fancy dress representing their nations - it was important they put the effort in as there were prizes at stake for the best dressed individual and team.

The events for the afternoon were; a bean bag race, egg and spoon race, 3-legged race, sack race and the team relay followed by a tug of war for fun. The competition was really tight all the way through and we even saw a dead heat in one of the bean bag heats, but Russia came out on top with Australia coming second and China third. The sack race just comprised of a final and with some great determination and focus, Jamaica took the lead with Australia and USA just behind. Australia had some great results all afternoon finishing in the top 2 in each event - a great result given James Blackley was the only competitor on the team, even in the 3-legged race, but he did get some help from team USA! The final event of the day was the Relay; the standings were really close at this point so it was all down to this event. The top 3 were Jamaica (1^st), Australia (2^nd) and Russia (3^rd).

It was a great afternoon and everyone was taking it seriously, really wanting that first prize! The pressure was building as the Sport Imperial team collated the results. After a short delay they were announced and the winners were Team Jamaica with 114 points, followed closely in 2^nd by China, 108 points. Russia came in 3^rd with 104, USA finished up in 4^th with 79 and Austalia 5^th with 64 points. The award for Best Dressed Team also went to Jamaica but the Best Dressed Individual was The Statue of Liberty from Team USA. Although Australia finished in 5^th place they picked up a prize for participation.

A big thank you to Andrew Bosman – Active Lifestyles Advisor (Participation) who organised the whole week, it was a great success!