15 Jun 2018

Phuket Sports Trip (31 May – 3 June)

For Basketball

On Thursday May 31st 45 KGV students from Y7-10 set off to Phuket, Thailand to compete in Football and Basketball at the British International School Phuket. The U15 Girls Basketball team played with a great team spirit and managed to win 2 out of 3 group games. Their highlight game of the tournament was their semi-final game where they were down 9-2 but came back to win the game 22-11 inspired by Micayla Baltazar’s return from injury. In the final the girls played with a lot of heart but lost to a very strong BISP team. The U15 Boys Basketball squad was split into 2 teams for the tournament (Black & Gold) both teams battled hard throughout. Unfortunately, both teams lost in the semi-finals and ended up in the third place playoff against each other. The standout performance was when the Black team was trailing BISP 12-14 with a few seconds remaining and Justin Cai hit a game tying shot. The U13 Boys played the tournament with only 5 players and displayed great stamina to play 5 games in one day. They won 2 out of 3 games in the group stage, losing a very close game against BISP. In the final they faced the same team…but were down to 4 players due to an injury sustained in the semi-final. Year 7 Footballer Max Chateris courageously stepped up at the last minute to help the team in the first half. Shaan Ganglani returned from his injury at half-time with the team down 7 points to inspire a comeback victory with Shaan hitting the game winning shot with just a few seconds left.

Jim Corrigall

For Football

The U13 boys worked hard and produced two good wins against a young BISP side to finished with the bronze medal. Ethan NG and Pranav Gopisetty were stand out performers in a competition that was of an exceptionally high standard. Given that the boys were playing one year above their age group, they can be particularly pleased with their performance.

The U15 girls continue to make progress in this annual tournament. Last year the girls were unfortunate to lose out on third position as a result of a fiercely contested penalty shout out. This year, the goal from the outset was to better last year’s performance and the girls duly delivered finishing second ahead of SIS and BISP B. Despite coming into the tournament after a long day of basketball competition and with the Scarlett Chiu, Micayla Baltazar and Captain Serina Siu carrying injuries, the girls rallied well. There were some sterling performances from Wendy Li and Kavisha Mahtani who’s defensive work gave KGV a platform from which to flourish. A fantastic semi-final win over SIS followed. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be this year and the girls were brushed aside by a very strong BISP O in the final.

Matt Ferriday

 

The U15 boys worked hard despite having a very small squad They battled on the first day of the tournament producing excellent performances against SIS both in the group stages and in the knock out stages. They finished 3rd in the group stages but lost out in the third place play off to a very unlucky goal. They were a credit to the school on the pitch and continued to play good football throughout the tournament. They learned quickly from the first day and were able to show massive improvement against BIS in a friendly game the next day and went on to beat a local Academy team in their second game. Some of the standout players of the weekend were Liam Floyd and Arnav Rai. Both year 9’s played exceptionally well.

 

Conor Mannion