Savai Village Sports Festival (1)
Damian will explain today’s events.
The program consists of the Obanyaki Eating Race, Three-Legged Race, Skolo (Centipede) Race, Tug of War, Ball Toss, and a Three-Choice Quiz.
Except for the Three-Choice Quiz, the knights who practiced beforehand gave demonstrations.
The Obanyaki Eating Race, Tug of War, Ball Toss, and Three-Choice Quiz are open to everyone.
For the Three-Legged Race, each team consists of five pairs: one children’s pair, one women’s pair, one men’s pair, one mixed pair, and one free pair, making three teams total.
For the Skolo Race, each team consists of three groups of five people, including at least one women’s group and one men’s group.
The Three-Legged and Skolo Races are relays, passing a baton.
The baton is a wooden stick placed inside a cloth pouch in each team color.
Here, each team leader gathered participants and decided who would enter.
“The Obanyaki Eating Race does not affect the team competition.
Inside the suspended bags are obanyaki.
With your hands folded behind your back, you must catch the hanging obanyaki with your mouth and reach the goal while holding it in your mouth.
If you drop it, you must return to where the obanyaki are hanging and start again.
Inside the bags is either red bean or white bean filling.”
Rosetta repeated the explanation twice using a loudspeaker.
First up are the children.
Fifteen children line up in a row, and at the signal they run toward the place where two knights hold a pole with five obanyaki bags hanging from it.
The knights holding the pole adjust the height according to the children’s height.
The sight of the children jumping and struggling to catch the spinning bags with their mouths has everyone cheering:
“I want it!” “Just a little more!” “Keep going!”
Then one girl succeeds in biting a bag of obanyaki and reaches the goal.
The other children succeed one after another and run to the finish.
Those who finished immediately begin eating the obanyaki they caught.
Women, men, and the elderly who wanted to join also all participated.
Canal, the Golden Wings, the maids, and the cooks also joined in with the villagers and seemed to be having fun.
Watching the people standing at the starting line
I accidentally shouted into the loudspeaker I was holding,
“Are you all doing it too, Brothers?”
The reply came through the loudspeaker Damian held.
“The leaders have to go last to finish things properly,” said Brother Gerald with a grin.
“On your marks, get set…”
“Beep!” The whistle blew and the four of them ran.
Brother Gerald reached the obanyaki first but failed to grab one.
The rope holding the obanyaki swung wildly, making it impossible to bite, and the one who slipped past and reached the goal first was Brother Isaac.
Brigitte was shouting loudly, “Lord Isaac, you’re wonderful!”
She probably thought no one would hear her among the cheers, but it reached all the way here.
Most likely Brother Isaac heard it too.
“Next event…”
I began to speak but then looked toward Atre and the others at the starting line.
Do you want to do the Obanyaki Eating Race too?
I was about to say that Ciel, Ripka, and Cherry would probably have trouble, when an ice ball flew from Ciel.
I dodged it, but that was dangerous.
Well, he probably means he can do it.
But how did he know what I was thinking?
Fine, if they try and fail, they’ll give up.
At the whistle, they all dashed forward (some were flying…), aiming for the obanyaki.
The first to arrive was Kamuela. As if the running had only been a warm-up, he leapt in one motion, grabbed the obanyaki, and reached the goal.
Everyone cheered, “Ohhh!” “Amazing!”
Second was Atre.
Atre also took one in a single jump and headed for the goal.
Bianca, Levin, and Ciel reached the goal, but at the finish line stood Luan holding a bag of obanyaki.
I glared suspiciously, thinking Luan might have hidden her presence and taken it by hand, but she ignored me and kept eating.
Ripka looked like the bag was heavy, but she held it in her mouth and reached the goal.
Lucia and Cherry also bit theirs and headed for the finish.
Among them, one still struggled.
Lucas suddenly grabbed a bag with his hand and crossed the finish line holding it.
“Lucas, that’s against the rules.”
“I don’t care, I’m not competing. I simply wanted to eat obanyaki.”
For the next events, the Three-Legged Race and the Centipede Race, due to time we removed the return run.
For the Three-Legged Race, the second and fourth pairs waited at the opposite end, and they were allowed to start once they received the baton.
“One, two, one, two,” four pairs chanted together as they jogged forward.
“Not many people are falling in the Three-Legged Race.”
“Many people practiced during the Obanyaki Eating Race.”
Do they all have good reflexes to learn so fast?
I thought skirts would make it difficult for the women, but they seemed fine.
The first to finish was Brother Chris’s blue team.
The fifth and final men’s pair was fast, overtaking two teams and taking first place.
Second place went to Brother Hubert’s green team.
Third place went to Brother Gerald’s orange team.
Each team receives points: five for first, three for second, two for third, and one for fourth.
What do you think about this chapter?
