Sports Day 2009 (Jolon)

Jolon's class was divided into two teams: red and blue. Ibuki said she timed the kids running around the track and tried to make it come out even, but for the past few weeks the blue team had been winning the relay race as well as the other two competitions. Jolon had told us this but didn't seem to mind. He'd been chosen by his classmates to be the second in command on his team, and he was the "anchor," in the relay. This meant he always ran last because he was the fastest. It also meant that he nearly always ran by himself. The 3 events were the nobori bou (climbing pole), the box game (the team has to work together to set up all of the boxes, jump back in line, get an ok from the referee, and then do it again, as many times as possible within one minute), and the baton relay. It was a beautiful day and all of the kids performed well. Some of them had only just recently become strong enough to climb the pole to the top, so the fact that everyone could do it was a big deal. This is just a short clip of his 3 events, starting with a bit of the traditional dance they've been practicing for weeks.