SPORT
Toby captains Olympic Hopes Regatta team
The Olympic Hopes Regatta was first held shortly after the Soviet Union abandoned its control of eastern Europe . The sporting event was originally founded to help strengthen the relationships between the youths of Hungary , Poland , Czech Republic and Slovakia through the sports of canoeing and kayaking . Since its introduction , a growing number of countries have joined the competition and this year twentyfour nations competed . Now the Olympic Hopes Regatta is the premier event for upcoming elite athletes looking to make their international debut . One such athlete is Year 11 student Toby Digney , who has been paddling for nearly 8 years and competed this year in the Under-17s age category . This is Toby ’ s third consecutive year on the Australian team , having previously competed in the Under-16s and Under-15s age categories . This year Toby was also voted in by his twenty-six other team-mates to lead the team as captain .
The tour ran for three weeks , meaning that Toby had to take some time off school . It began on September 7 and finished on September 28 .
The first two weeks of the tour were spent in an intense training camp in Bohinj , Slovenia ; an area in the country ’ s largest national park . Most of the team ’ s training took place on a picturesque freshwater lake amongst the mountains . The team committed themselves to three sessions a day ; two on water sessions in the boats and one other session such as stretching or running . On rest days the team got to
St George ’ s first over the line in Chapel Gift
The Athletics season got off to a flying start , with the annual running of the Chapel Gift taking place at lunchtime on Wednesday 15 August .
The Chapel Gift race is a 435m sprint by the fastest runner in each House , around the Senior School , starting in front of the Chapel , on the third ring of the Chapel bell .
This year , Vice-Captain of School , Charles Cassell ( 12SG ) was awarded the prestigious Chapel Gift trophy for 2016 . visit local towns and also the capital city of Slovenia : Ljubljana . At the conclusion of the training camp the team travelled to Szeged in Hungary , a city near the Serbian border , where the regatta would be held . Commencing on September 23 and finishing on September 25 , the regatta was held on a course situated in the rural area surrounding the city of Szeged .
The regatta is structured such that all the races of a particular distance are done on one day . The first day was designated for two hundred metres , the second for one thousand , and the third for five hundred . Toby competed in the K2 events for every distance with his doubles partners Dodge Newton ( NSW ) for the two hundred and five hundred metre , and Caleb Bushby ( WA ) for the one thousand metre . The crews fought through to the semi-finals but were
knocked out and didn ’ t progress to the finals . Toby and Caleb only narrowly missed out on a place in the one thousand metre final in a very tight semi-final where they needed at least third place to progress but came in fourth with a time of 3:45.9 only 0.7 seconds behind the German crew which took out third .
The tour was bought to a close in Budapest where the team selected at the national titles in Australia six months earlier disbanded and returned to their individual states . When asked about the future of his kayaking career Toby said that he will be competing to be selected for a spot in the Junior World Championships team at the nationals in Sydney next year , however due to the commitments of Year 12 and the increase in school work he is unsure how serious a competitor he will be .
25