AKA, Mombasa Hosts MISL Athletics Inset

On 08 January 2015, the Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa hosted the MISL (Mombasa International School League) Athletics Inset which involved various sports representatives from schools in the League. It is a tradition for the MISL to propose such event at the beginning of the year that covers at least two sports. These sports are the ones that are normally calendared for the current season.

For the first time, the inset managed to have all the schools and academies to come together for a session focusing on track and field events. It covered various areas of teaching sports including officiating, safety measures, pedagogy, and basic kinesiology in connection with sprinting events, hurdling, relays, the long, triple and high jumps and the shot-put, javelin and discus throws. This session was very dynamic and questions kept on flowing and the participants’ curiosity and enthusiasm were extremely motivating; they were even more curious to see how these theories would be put into action.

Among the 23 participants, there were coaches, teachers and heads of sports departments. According to the chairman, this was the very first athletics workshop held in Mombasa. The teachers were unanimous in asking for these kinds of activities over at least two weeks so as to touch on all the athletic events in greater depth, but what was more tangible to me was this craving they all have to learn.

Despite the muscular pain they experienced the following days after the event (some trying to learn new ways of sitting and getting up), the feedback was very encouraging and the taste of this one-day experience is still being felt through intense debate in the coaches’ email conversation. There has been passionate discussion about the new Junior Athletic day that was hosted on Saturday 28^th February 2015.

The aim of reaching out to the community has been successfully attained through sports and our Mombasa colleagues are better equipped with basic knowledge to promote track and field in their schools. I am now looking forward to reach out to the wider community from public schools. The greater achievement has been to make coaches understand that fun and learning challenging skills can go alongside a safe learning environment.

Gervais Ramar, Sports Director at AKA, Mombasa