Onwards - July 2012 - South Wilts Grammar School for Girls

ONWARDS
Continued…...The Science of Sport: How to Win Gold
“I was sceptical about hearing back because I knew the competition would be
tough, and there was me... with my milk. However I had been short listed to go
through to the next round, it now being down to the top 12 in Britain and Ireland.
Even as I write this I still can’t quite believe it. The Physiological Society wrote
back to me about my project with some suggestions for the next stage. One was
to use milk as well as chocolate milk and a general criticism to all candidates was
that their number of participants was low, in most cases just one. I knew that for my project to
even be considered I needed more people to take part. So began the busiest four weeks of
my school life. The first week back after half-term would be organising the practical, this
meant getting the booklets for the candidates ready, as well as permission forms, due to the
fact I’d be pricking each person’s finger, (over the duration of the practical I pricked peoples
fingers a total of 240 times). I managed to gather 27 candidates to take part. After collecting
all the results I had to put them together in an A0 poster ready to be taken to London.
Standing in front of a Year 13 class asking them to point out spelling and grammar mistakes,
it hit me how big this project this project truly was. After a sprint into Salisbury to get it printed,
I was ready.
The next day we (Miss Drysdale and I) were on the train to London. I was being quizzed on
my project, making sure I was ready for any question. The conference check-in was at 10am,
and we arrived 10 minutes early. So we had some time to kill and on our way out we bumped
into the Ringwood School, who were also early. We all decided to get coffee... However in the
spirit of my work I had a chocolate milkshake. One of the girls I was chatting to had been
working with a lab who had been injecting stem cells into people suffering with Tennis Elbow,
with 60 participants. When we got back to the conference centre all the other teams and
competitors had arrived. It was time to set up. We pinned my poster up and put all the
equipment I had used, out on the table in front, and with a folder to keep my hands busy, I
was ready for the judges. What I didn’t know was that the conference was open to people all
across the world, so more than just the judges were looking at our posters. Fortunately
university students were finding my poster very interesting and were asking me lots of
questions, which gave me a test run for when the judges came over. After about an hour and
a half of talking non-stop, having our photos taken and being filmed, our time was up. We
collected lunch and had to wait for the judges’ decision.
When the ‘results were in’ we all filed back into the conference hall, the competitors taking up
the front rows. Suddenly I regretted eating my lunch, nerves were kicking in... Big Time. There
must have been 200 seats in the hall with a good two thirds being taken up by people curious
about the results. Before they announced the winners all the competitors were called up to
collect their certificates, and posed for a photo. We all took our seats for the results.
With the prize for Highly Commended, it was a team looking into ‘mustard effecting muscle
mass’. Now for Bronze: I looked on at the stage... it was me... I stood up, sat back down,
before rising once more. I couldn’t believe it. Out of the whole of Britain and Ireland I was
collecting the Bronze medal.
The judge placed the medal over my neck and shook my hand; I stood looking on to the
crowd in disbelief. All the blood, sweat and tears (quite literally) had been worth it. And as if
that wasn’t enough, one of the girls who I had got to know from Ringwood picked up Silver.
We all posed for a photo, before getting our bits together to leave. All the medallists
congratulated each other before heading back to the train station. Miss Drysdale and I said
our goodbyes to Ringwood before running across Waterloo to catch our train... Then home for
a hot bath and early night’s sleep. But a thank you goes to everyone who helped, because
even though I was up there collecting a medal, it definitely was a team victory, a very large
team victory. (Sophie Sibley 12AAD)
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