The annual sports day is just around the corner - 24th of April, and as always the four houses, harimau, helang, seladang and beruang will be competing to be the champion. Sports day is one of the biggest event of the year where students compete in the march past, cheerleading, relay races and many more.

Every day from the 5th to the 24th April, we will have fixed classes, which means no changing classes and lugging our heavy bags everywhere. Some students forget where their fixed classes were and ambled around trying to remember until they saw their friends who knew where the class was.

Also, from the 5th to the 24th April, each house will go to the field and endure a daily dose of intense heat and suffering from running, marching, etc. Three full hours, daily! We will be trudging up the long slope and starting our routine, under the hot sun, fearing skin cancer from the sunburn.Runners strained their muscles after a long lapse of inactivity. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.

March past captains strain their voices shouting the commands at their troops. Repeat louder! March harder! Stomp louder! - when all we want to do is take a long snack break. My throat was sore just after one day of marching. The daily doses of cough medicine didn’t even help much.

Marchers had to march up and down in the heat of the sun’s rays. To top that off, the nosy, hungry, blood sucking mosquitoes had ample victims to choose from. I, a fellow marcher, will endure this pain and suffering daily as it is compulsory unless you can’t come for sports day, and even then you have to produce a note and give an explanation for your absence.

Each of the respective houses were all busy, with their plans and strategy on how to capture the points to be the best.

The Seladangs have been busy preparing their props; starting early on the first day of practice. They made unique hats out of straws and were seen sewing banners. Their march past team could be heard miles away screaming at top of their voices. This year the Seladang’s theme is “Spirit of the game”. Harimau is also practicing their marching with the theme being “High school”. The props team are making red hats out of cardboard and drums while the seniors are busy writing up the lyrics for the marchers to perform. Beruang’s theme is “Michael Jackson” in tribute of his death. They will be singing songs set to Michael Jackson tunes, while their props team is also making guitars out of cardboard and a stage. Helang’s theme is “In the jungle”. Their runners are hard at work practicing their run to win for the Helang house. For props they are making hula skirts out of raffia string.

Besides that, the cheerleaders in each of the houses are working hard to cinch the gold. The cheerleading competition is set to fall on the 8th of May, so don’t miss it! March past this year is getting bigger and better with the competition heating up and everyone is trying new moves to compete with, even when tired and sweating from the practices.

I cannot wait for the day when sports day is finally over. Classes will return to normal and students will have to carry their bags from here and there again. Will Seladang be the champion again for sports day or will one of the other houses snatch the victory from them? We will find out on the 24th of April at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia ( UKM ), Stadium, Bangi.