Yew Chung International School of Beijing’s boys’ Handball Team brought home the coveted first prize after competing in their very first handball competition on Tuesday and Wednesday. The girls’ team also participated for the first time at the 7th Annual BSB Handball Invite taking the third spot.

These results are to be proudly celebrated considering that handball has only recently been added to our school’s sports catalogue, but our students are already showing themselves to have a knack for the sport already.

Shannon Speight, PE Teacher and Primary Athletics Coordinator, told us how it all began: “Back in November, I started teaching Y3 a unit in manipulatives, focusing on throwing/catching accuracy and techniques. For one of the lessons, we played a modified small game of handball and I noticed the students really enjoyed the game. After that day, I signed YCIS up for the first ever U8 handball tournament, so the students had a goal to work towards for the next few months.”

The hard work paid off as players displayed great teamwork and dedication during their games against other international schools. Shannon attributes the teams’ wins to “Proper progression and the understanding of the game”

Although all players put their best foot forward for the game, according to Shannon: “August Hope and Sean Chieng made some phenomenal saves the entire tournament. Aideen Chen scored the winning goal in overtime to win the 1st place trophy and Steve Hwang played with such determination and scored many goals throughout the day.”

In the girls’ team, Carina Wang, Sophia Coggins and Elizabeth Abitbol played impressively as well, and according to Kevin Meng, PE Teacher and coach, the girls also enjoyed being spectators and observe their opponents who played the game longer go head to head. In addition to that, Mr. Meng shared that “Even though the girls are in different year groups, they really enjoyed playing together as one team for the first time. A great display of collaborative work YCIS Beijing continuously instills in our learners”.

Congratulations Scorpions! We look forward to receiving more trophies in the upcoming events.