St Augustine’s is one of the few schools in the Vasai area to have a cross country race as part of the annual curriculum.The origins of race are traced back to the early 70 ‘s. Br Murphy and Br Greg Fernandes were the ones who first started the Cross Country race in the school.Br Augustine Jairaj,ex student and legendary sportsman of our school,remembers that the route of the race also has not changed much from the early days except that it used to be in the counter clockwise direction. Somewhere down the years the route shifted to a clockwise run. This involves the runners starting from school well before sunrise.

They then run towards Manickpur,turn right and make their way towards the Salt Pan road.This is the most picturesque part of the route as they run through the morning mist with the rising sun at their backs.They turn right again at the end of the road and then make their way along the home stretch back to school.This,more or less,has been the route of the cross country road since it started.There would be variations caused by the construction of buildings and societies between the school and the salt pans. (Br Parag D’Costa,who passed out of school in 1992,remembers that in the year 1991 the Cross Country race started from Naigaon station.The runners were asked to assemble at the station and the race began from there. Winners that year : 1st – Deepak Gonsalves,2nd- John Fernandes ,3rd-Parag D’Costa)
The advantage of the traditional route is that it does not involve having to cross a road at any point. The traffic on the salt pan road has however increased significantly since the opening of the Naigaon Railway bridge so the runners have to be more careful.
This year the winners of the Cross Country Race were ..

And let us also remember..

Congrats to all who ran the race and to all the teachers whose efforts made it possible.

Leave a comment