Whanganui Secondary School (WSS) ISO Champs will conclude on Sunday. Photos / Supplied
Whanganui Secondary School (WSS) ISO Champs will conclude on Sunday. Photos / Supplied
Less than 48 hours from the conclusion and it's going to take a big shift for one of the other six schools to unseat Whanganui Girls College as winners of the Whanganui Secondary School (WSS) ISO Champs.
Under the Level 4 and 3 lockdowns for the Covid-19 pandemic, the ISO (Isolation) Champs have been an internet-based physical activity competition organised by Sport Whanganui.
They provided students and teachers with an online form to each log their daily training or activity routine, with proof provided by adding a picture or video.
The overall hours are added together for each school to find the most active.
As of Friday afternoon, co-ordinator Clare Lynch said they have received 860 responses over the month and a half of the competition, and therefore are hoping to hit 1000 this weekend.
The competition concludes at 5pm on Sunday, with students heading back to school and their semi-regular routines on Monday.
Whanganui Girls students and staff had embraced the challenge on logging their activities under lockdown, and maintain a comfortable lead heading into the weekend of completing 335 hours.
Second place remains their fellow girls school in Marton's Nga Tawa Diocesan, who have logged 205 hours worth of activities, while the co-ed Cullinane College remains third with 157, but having closed the gap on Nga Tawa in the past two weeks.
City College has also cleared over 100 hours, creating more of a gap from Whanganui High School in fifth place, while there wasn't a large pickup for the challenge from Whanganui Collegiate or Rangitikei College.
The points standings heading into the weekend for the ISO Champs.
As well as inter-school competition, the ISO Champs have also recorded responses from representatives from the individual houses within each school to find internal winners.
The winners will be announced on Monday, with a tangible prize being given to the leading school as of Sunday's deadline.
As well as secondary schools, Sport Whanganui organised a 'Battle of the Bubbles' for Whanganui's primary school children.
The event invites schoolchildren to register through the Sport Whanganui website an then log their daily number of skips on the old skipping rope, with proof via a photo or video.
The Churton, Gonville and St Johns Hill schoolchildren have taken on the challenge, specifically those who have been back at school under Level 3.
"That went out to more schools, but those three have jumped on board at this stage," said Lynch.
"A shout out to more schools to jump on is all good too."
The Battle of the Bubbles skipping challenge.
If children in their own homes did not have a skipping rope, they can still take part by laying down an object or drawing a line on the outside concrete and jumping over it, with each jump counting as a 'skip'.
The Battle of the Bubbles will continue as children return to classes through until Tuesday, after which the winning school will be announced.
As of Thursday evening, Churton School had a good lead with over 13,000 skips logged, followed by St Johns Hill with over 11,000, while Gonville was approaching 5000.
Schools and students can send their skip logs to either Sport Whanganui's Facebook page or their website.
It is not too late to get involved in the WSS ISO Champs, secondary school students and staff can download the form at https://forms.gle/5gPgiKd637aTrD597 to log their activity hours for their schools.
