Athlacademathon, Godfrey Cup draw students into competition

The steps of the King’s library were temporarily turned into a dance stage, and the quad into an athletics space, for the King’s Chorus Second Annual Athlacademathon last Saturday.
The Athlacademathon combines athletic ability and academic excellence.
Four teams participated in the day’s activities that included Ultimate Frisbee and an essay writing competition.
Professor Peter O’Brien presented the topics for the essays he would be judging later that day.
“I have two topics, both designed to test intellectual and rhetorical resilience. The first one is Gilgamesh or Game of Thrones. Discuss. The second one is, Plato or Lady Gaga. Discuss.”

Some groups chose to include Latin in their essays, while others confused Plato for its homophone ‘play dough’.
As the groups collaborated on their essays, Braeden Jones prepared a table nearby for the Godfrey Cup race.
The Godfrey Cup returns after a brief hiatus, and has winners that date back to 1899.
A small crowd arrived in the quad for the run, wearing gloves and hats to take part in the windy five-kilometre race and hoping to have their name immortalized on the 114-year-old trophy.
Haydn Watters, a second-year journalism student, proved to be the fastest runner of the day.
“I was coming around and turned left in to the quad and I didn’t expect the blue ribbon to be there, and everyone was cheering.”
Watters won the race, but the winning team of the Athlacademathon’s many events was the team named the Puddle Ducks.
The team was made of members from the company Bike Again, who also provided a trophy and medals made of repurposed bike parts for the winners of the day’s activities.
Participants of both the old and new King’s events celebrated with barbecued sausages, peppers and burgers well into the late afternoon.