It was a faithful Friday morning, on the 25th of January 2019 when SMK Bandar Utama Damansara (3) organised their annual Merentas Desa for 2019. All students throughout Form1 to Form 5, were instructed to wear their following house T-shirts such as the yellow house tshirt and so on. Though it would be a tradition for the upper forms to involve themselves for this event, they felt a burning passion to do their very best as it would be one of their last years doing so.
The route for this years merentas desa has not changed since the last few years. Students would be running around the Bandar Utama area, passing by Centrepoint, SJK(C) Puay Chai and Effingham. Teachers as well as a few policemen were stationed along the route to ensure the students safety during the run. All together, the total distance of this route would be around 3km.
The morning started at 8 am with a few words from our principal, Pn Zuraidah, and soon passed on the event to Cikgu Syukri to explain the rules of the run. He explained that both the boys and girls would be separated into 3 categories according to forms. The girls would be released first, by the lowest form to the hjghest, then followed by the boys. Other than that, Cikgu Syukri advised the students to stay clear off the roads and to be careful when running on slippery surfaces to avoid any injury.
By 8.20am, the presidents of each house were requested to lead the warm up before the run. After a few stretches, P3 was called out to get ready by the school entrance to begin the race. They were then followed by P2 after a 2 minute interval and the other categories so on. After 10 minutes since P3 was released, the L1 category finally was able to begin after waiting for the L3 and L2 categories to leave the school compound.
After 50 minutes or so, the students came back to school sweaty and exhausted from running but once they reached school, they had to run to the school's basketball court to get a placing in their category. Once people started to return to school, they found that there were people selling cool drinks near the canteen . Once the teachers concluded that all the students arrived back to school, they let everyone off for recess. In the meantime, the teachers counted the points collected by the students during the run according the sports houses.
After an hour long recess that began at 10am, everyone had to assemble at the shaded basketball court . Pn Zuraidah thanked the students for being enthusiastic in completing the run. Soon after that, the results of the race were announced which brought everyones' adrenaline rising. All the houses did their own signiture cheer to spark enthusiasm into every member. With adrenaline running high, the teachers announced the total marks collected and each houses placing. Blue house nabbed first place, following by green house in second which differed by one point with yellow house which placed in third and finally with red house in fourth. Though some were not satisfied with their house pacing, they vowed to work much harder in the upcoming sports day to take their rightful place in first.
Speaking as a true fan of our schools’ sports day, i cant wait for what might happen on sports day on 4 April. I hope it would be as exciting as last year. Who would know if the tables would turn again?
By: Farah Azwanilda
