On April 5th we woke to the exciting news that our Senior Cross Country team had won silver medals at the ISF World Schools Cross Country Championships in Paris.
The six boys, Blair Hill, Stuart Hofmeyr, Zach Keenan, Murdoch McIntyre, David Moore and Daniel Robertson, were thrilled to be selected last winter to represent New Zealand as the schoolboys’ team at this prestigious international event. In the intervening months they worked hard, committing many hours to training and fundraising, then headed to Europe at the end of March. They spent a few days in London to acclimatise, training in very cold weather in Hyde Park, (with the Household Cavalry riding past!), and enjoying some sightseeing.
The race was run over 5.4km, in the Champs de Mars at the feet of the Eiffel Tower. A total of 600 athletes from 34 countries competed, with team placings determined by the finishing places of the top four runners in each team. Murdoch McIntyre took 5th place in a time of 16:41, David Moore was 10th, Stuart Hofmeyr 13th, Daniel Robertson 21st, Zach Keenan 28th and Blair Hill 47th. Blair is still only 15 years old, five others are 16 and the oldest, Stuart Hofmeyr, just turned 17 on the way to Paris.
In addition to the Westlake team, New Zealand fielded a Girls’ School team from St. Cuthbert’s College, and selected Boys’ and Girls’ teams, made up of individual runners from across the country. Both girls’ teams took bronze medals. Running powerhouse Morocco won the Boys’ and Girls’ School team and selected boys’ team races and our boys were delighted to take second place to such strong competitors. They were also thrilled to meet one of their heroes, Moroccan running great and former Olympic and World Champion, Hicham El Guerrouj. After speaking at the opening ceremony he stopped for photos with the New Zealand athletes and told them, "Run with pride, Kiwis."
The boys were indeed very proud to represent their country at this prestigious international event. They are extremely grateful for the support and guidance of their coach, Mr Theuns Strydom, whose dedication to Westlake Distance Running is extraordinary. All of them are examples of how serious hard work and commitment really can pay off.
<<Insert pic: David Moore, Zach Keenan and Daniel Robertson racing at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.>>
<<Insert pic: Murdoch McIntyre on his way to 5th place.>>
<<Insert pic: Silver medal and trophy. >>
Flying Fingers, Flags and Fun!
Music was a strong feature of our annual Culture Week. We welcomed back Westlaker Jason Bae, a highly accomplished international concert pianist and New Zealand’s only Steinway Artist, who played in assembly and gave a piano masterclass to four lucky students. Later in the week he made his New Zealand conducting debut at our annual Proms Concert, leading the orchestra in a sparkling performance of Otto Nicolai’s beautiful overture to ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’. He also performed Piano Sonata No. 5, Op 39 by Nicolai Medtner. It was breath-taking to see Jason’s fingers fly across the keyboard and to watch him conduct, astonishingly using no score!
Westlake Symphony Orchestra, Choralation and Voicemale performed a broad and lively repertoire to the packed auditorium. The Year 13 soloist was Westlake Girls’ student, viola player Cecile McNeill, who performed a fun trio of movements from ‘When Gravity Falls’ by Philip Norman, with great panache.
With prizes on offer for the Best British-themed costume, the ladies and gentlemen of the Mayfair retirement village went all out in red, white and blue , another group was dressed as Charlie Chaplin and many were draped in Union Jacks, matching the streamers and flags throughout the auditorium. As always, the audience joined in with great gusto as the evening was rounded off with all the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ classics: Rule, Britannia!, Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and the British and New Zealand national anthems.
Our thanks to the hard-working Musical Directors, David Squire and Rowan Johnston, Master of Ceremonies, Nick Brown, and all the other staff involved in making the evening such a great success.
<<Insert pic: Westlake Symphony Orchestra and Choralation Choir performing at the Proms Concert.>>
<<Insert pic: Westlaker Jason Bae had the audience enthralled.>>
<<Insert pic: Ladies from the Mayfair Retirement Village in their red, white and blue.>>
Westlake Interact Club
Year 12 student, Stefan Ivanovic, has taken the lead in starting up the Westlake Interact Club – a ‘junior’ branch of Rotary, giving young people aged 12 – 18 the opportunity to develop leadership skills and serve their local community. The club is sponsored by Milford Rotary Club, which provides support and guidance, but it is self-governing. They will hold at least two service projects each year – one that helps the school or community and one that promotes international understanding.
The club’s first venture this year was a local community clean up through Milford, Forrest Hill, Wairau Valley and Hillcrest. Stefan showed excellent leadership skills, sourcing reusable sacks from Auckland City Council and leading a team of 34 students who started at 7am.
<<Insert pic: Members of Westlake Interact Club on a local community clean-up.>>
Four of the Club members recently took part in an Intergenerational Dialogue Conference held at Takapuna library. Young people from local high schools joined older people from the area to discuss topics they are passionate about, including social media, drugs and alcohol, the Treaty of Waitangi and transport and infrastructure. Henry Mitchell-Hibbert said, “We found that every generation had interesting differences and surprising similarities in our points of view.” Jonathan Lee found a major highlight was “listening to different perspectives on the issues I thought were originally simple”. The boys found the experience challenging but thoroughly enjoyable.
<<Insert pic: Henry Mitchell-Hibbert, Stefan Ivanov, Jonathan Lee and Bill Song at the Intergenerational Dialogue Conference.>>
