When we reached the warm up stadium of Bukit Jalil, we went to register our names in. After we registered, we were given a bag of McDonald’s goodie’s. Inside of it there was a shirt, notebook, coupons for McDonald’s meals, and a bottle of water. We were divided into three categories which were:
a) Category A: Ages 7 – 8
b) Category B: Ages 9 – 11
c) Category C: Ages 12 – 14
I was in Category C and my sister was in Category B. I was a bit negative of not winning because the age of the other competitors were older and faster than me. First, each category was given a certain distance to run.
Another thing is only the top 20 from each category and boys and girls will be running separately. So 10 girls and 10 boys equals to 20 boys and girls. First, they started of with Category A boys running 500m. After that girls. Then they went to Category B which was the category my sister took part in. They had to run 1000m. They started with boys and then girls. My sister got 2nd placing. After Category B it was at last my category which was Category C. My category had to run 1500m. Well I got 4th . I felt so happy when I got fourth. Then there were altogether 60 people left after all the elimination during the 1500m run.
There were over 500 people and I was so lucky to stay in the top 60 finalists. Then we were to sit for a written test which was based on the Olympic Games. So we had to wait for quite a long time until we almost decided to go home but then they started it right before we went down. So we all sat for the test.
Different categories had different types of tests. Category A was obviously easy as they had to match pictures of sports to their respective words, Category B was okay, and Category C was the most difficult. Well everyone took at least 10 minutes to finish the test but me and my new friend Selvam finished our test in 20 minutes. I was confident of my answers.
When we finished, we went for our Oral test. What we had to do was, choose a topic from any of the 3 options there and you have to pick one of them and talk about it. So I chose the 3rd option which was “If I was the McDonalds Champion Kid what would I have wanted to experience in the Beijing Olympics… “. So I tried and gave it all my very best. I kept talking comfortably and I think they were impressed.
After the oral was finished, we all had to assemble at the hall and wait for them to announce the winners. My mom told me that the judges who marked my paper said that I achieved the highest score compared to the others. This was 18 out of 20. So I felt quite confident when I heard what my mom said. The winners of the first to categories were girls and my sister almost won but she lost points at the Oral Recitation test. Right before they announced the winner they announced that the winner was a boy. So I started doing my ‘mool mantar’ continuously. Then I stopped for a while and started saying ‘Waheguru’ continuously. After every number he announced I stared at my number, and so did the announcer while announcing my number. So when I heard my number I jumped out of my chair with joy and excitement and ran to the stage to receive my medal. I feel very proud to carry my school’s name. I hope they feel the same way about me.
Bye.
Name: Mandeep Singh
Class: Team 6 Edison
