The Chair vs Chair final

Congratulations to both our chairs who put their bodies on the line and their fitness to the test to raise fund for Saints. Both Mr Shaun Edmeston, chair of our Old Stithian Association, and Mr Carel Nolte, chair of our council, spent the last two months doing rigorous training and following strict eating plans with the help of the amazing professionals in our High Performance Centre (HPC). They have been diligent in their training and eating and on the 1 December 2017, supporters of the two chairs came out to see who would be the smackdown champion. 

While the "winner" of the #ChairVChair challenge is our chair of council, Mr Carel Nolte, the school wins because the two have been using this as an opportunity to raise funds for our school.

Through a partnership with Inside Active, our HPC is a brilliant health and wellness space. Learn more about the team of professionals available to you. 

Our chair of council worked with Mr Robin van Ginkel, director of hockey and head of sports science, while our OSA chair worked with Mr Charl Kaschula, biokinteticist, to increase their fitness levels, and decrease their body fat so they could take each other on in the ultimate fitness showdown.

The two chairs began in the HPC for a variety of activities and they ended with a run around the ring road. The winner was decided based on who accumulated the most points.

Scoring:

• Body fat percentage: biggest percentage decrease. Value: 2 points
• 5 RM Squat: highest percentage increase. Value: 1 point
• Holding a plank for the longest time. Value: 1 point
• Bench Press: doing the most reps at 60kg. Value: 1 point
• Broad jump: furthest jump. Value: 1 point
• 2000m row: quickest to complete 2 000m. Value: 2 points
• Ring road time trial: first to complete course. Value: 2 points

The score from the gym was Shaun 3 – 5 Carel. Carel won the time trial bringing the final score to Shaun 3 – 7 Carel.

The competitors share their thoughts

"The challenge has been great. From a physical perspective it has been good for me to challenge myself and it has also been good to learn from Robin and the other people who work at Saints; I've gained some handy tips. Overall, it has been great to do something with Shaun and it has reminded me that we have great alumni at our school. Overall, it has been a great experience," said Carel Nolte on Friday after completing and "winning" the challenge.

"Some things I like doing, like running; so, I can run far. The rowing I found hard so Robin gave me some good techniques; the squats, and the weights were hard. The plank was very hard; Shaun whipped my butt in the plank. It was challenging but it's good to challenge yourself; this run around the campus has many hills," said Carel Nolte when asked whether he found the #ChairVChair challenging.

"I do want to say thank you to Shaun," said Carel Nolte in his vote of thanks at the final on Friday. He continued: "Under Shaun's leadership the OSA has really changed. We have fantastic alumni. Shaun: thank you for doing this and for growing what the alumni do. Well done on putting your body on the line."

Said Shaun Edmeston on Friday, after the final: "I happily concede victory. Carel was very gracious on the run. To the team from Inside Active: thank you. To Carel: thank you for meeting me half way with this. I think it is a great, great thing that we've done here and we've raised a nice amount of money. This is a great way for us to give back and to keep the [Saints] community going. Seeing as though we had so much fun doing it this year, we would like to expand this into an annual fundraiser. The alumni will challenge the school to a full set of fitness tests and we'll put together a team starting early in the new year: Tim and the executive verses Carel, Shaun and our team."

"We will see if we can improve the amount of money we raised and see if we can get some more people coming down to Inside Active 'cause I think the High Performance Centre is an absolutely fantastic place. To everybody involved: thank you. To those of you who came out to support us: thank you. Carel, it has been and absolute pleasure working with you on this," said Shaun Edmeston.

A word from our rector

Dr Tim Nuttall began by thanking the supporters, he accepted the challenge, and quipped "accept defeat already" to Shaun.

"Thanks for turning out. [And Shaun] accept defeat already. It's lovely to see the dream, that I was very much part of, of reinventing the High Performance Centre coming to fruition. Thank you so much to Inside Active for partnering with us. This has been a year of learning both for the school and for [Inside Active] and on the platform of that we are going to build something even better next year. It is an amazing facility on an amazing campus so we can really make it rock. Thank you to Judith [Thomson, of Inside Active] and her team for their partnership. Thank you also to Robin for being a a real catalytic agent in making this happen," said Dr Tim Nuttall, Rector of St Stithians College in his vote of thanks on Friday. 

The event was plenty of fun and ended with lots of laughing and chatting amongst the supporters, the competitors, and the trainers.