HIGH school students from around the region swapped the challenge of the classroom for a contest of the fittest yesterday when they ran, leapt and crawled their way through Lake Keepit’s inaugural Winter Warriors event.
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Yesterday’s inter-school team challenge was fought out between 16 teams from Tamworth, Gunnedah, Moree, Barraba, Kempsey and Blacktown in Sydney over a testing 15km course in and around the dam.
Schools entered teams of six, from years 9 to 12, with the course broken into three sections: a 5km run, 2km leg that involved teams carrying a log and cinder block, and an 8km obstacle run.
Lake Keepit Sport and Recreation Centre program coordinator Heath Roods said the idea came from the many obstacle challenges held around the country every weekend, including Tamworth’s own Suck It Up Buttercup.
There were none, as far as they knew, though, specifically aimed at schools, so the Keepit team decided to give it a go.
Mr Roods said they were thrilled with the response to the first one and were aiming to make it an annual event, building up team numbers each year.
“We’d love to attract a lot more teams from around the state, with the aim of making it a real showcase event for the North West,” he said.
“We see it as a real opportunity for the region.” The event was run over three divisions: boys, girls and mixed.
The team from Tamworth’s Calrossy Anglican School won the boys’, Kempsey High took out the girls’ division and Moree Secondary College the mixed.
Mr Roods said they had estimated the average finishing time would be about two-and-a-half hours, but the Calrossy team had smashed that estimate, clocking 1 hour and 46 minutes.
