By Robin Hartley | Posted: Monday August 29, 2016
Year 5 team come second!
August the 16th was the date of this year's O'MAthalon, where running and fitness meet maths and problem solving. Teams of Year 5 and 6 were competing with each other against the best in Otago hoping to win. First to compete were the Year 6 teams. The Kaikorai Year 6 team was James Hulyer, Jenny De La Harpe, Loek Van Broekhoven and Oscar Robertson. It was very exciting as all the teams cheered them on and the runners sprinted to deliver the question answers. 10, 9, 8, 7…
Time was running out. Everyone raced to deliver their final answers. 3, 2, 1...Stop! Soon after the results were in. The Kaikorai year 6 six team came 4th equal and scored 26 points!
After photos and certificates, the announcer said “Now, Year 5 teams please make your way to your tables. Please make your way to your tables.” Now it was finally the year 5’s turn (my team’s turn). We made our way to table 28 and sat down nervously. The year five team was Harry Bates, Hope Huang, David Zeng and Louis Robertson. The first round for both teams was a tie breaker (just in case there was tie for 1st place). Questions that involved, problem solving, counting, estimating and all sorts of things. In about ten minutes we were told to bring our tie breaker sheets up to our markers. After I (Harry) handed it in, the clock had started and I raced back with our first 2 questions. After about 15 questions the pressure was really on. We hadn’t got a question wrong yet but we could tell that the other teams were doing very well too. We finally reached the last question but we got really stuck on it. Writing down random answers. It turned out that we got extremely close but in the end we didn’t get it! The end came nearer and soon the year 5 competition was over. Waiting nervously, playing games to pass the time and then the results were in. The whole team trying not to get our hopes up. Third place was announced and we got more nervous. Then second place was announced and they said “Kaikorai Primary School!” We walked up there all very shocked but happy. We received an envelope with certificates inside. We got a photo with the 3rd and 1st placed teams and then it was time for us to head back to school.