Why I love the Coke Games The drops of rain gently falls into the Waimanu River, adding to the rapid under currents ferociously churning driftwood and debris downstream. The rivers pregnant belly gradually spreads over the banks of Sawani as an omen of what is yet to come. A stone throw away, she seats in her cubicle, wiping her recently cleaned track shoes as thoughts flood her mind of what lay ahead. The soundtrack to her thoughts is the sounds of water rushing past the school as the chants of Waimanu Kui echoes faintly in a distance. She is focused with the raw determination of a soldier ready for battle. In less than 48hrs she will be in the arena and it will be a moment she will remember for the rest of her life. This is what she has been preparing for, the endless training sessions and early morning starts have all brought her to this point. The glorious sounds of her sisters mantra of support from the grandstand on the day will be the added push she needs and would definitely take her further over that line. This is her moment. __________________________________________________________ Watching her through live-stream late at night, the Old Girl is watching intently thousands of miles away trying to keep herself warm in the below zero temperature. A few decades ahead of the athlete she is watching , the Old Girl remembers her moment like it was yesterday. Memories come flooding back and she instantly breaks into a smile. The nostalgia is thick and in her Red & Black ACS Tee, she also slowly echoes the chant Waimanu Kui. __________________________________________________________ Across the globe, in the middle of a blistering desert in her military attire, she is focussed on the day ahead. As she laces up her Military-issue boots, she can almost feel the atmosphere of the National Stadium. She too like her sister in the Northern Hemisphere slowly chants Waimanu Kui. __________________________________________________________ It didnt matter that she was in her apartment in San Francisco, in her office in Brisbane, her uni room in Wuhan University in China, at a conference room in Nadi, or in her living room in the United Kingdom and Germany with other Old Girls. At this very moment, in this very hour, she is at the National Stadium at Laucala Bay in spirit and in solidarity. For every athlete on her mark on the track waiting for the starters gun to fire, as she is feeling the weight of her javelin or running up to the mattress preparing for her jump, there is a roomful of support and cheering behind her from all corners of the globe which cuts through various generations and certainly cuts through numerous time-zones. For we are ACS, we are the Lilly ni Waimanu. It is the one time of the year that the thousands of Old Girls from all years, are all in one place at the same time. We are Adi Cakobau School. -Lucy Speight Work.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 03:58:44 +0000
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