On February 8, 2007, Team Indo brought home the Gold Cup of the first Annual Indo-Asian Octathlon held at the SFP common room. Against the backdrop of fans, cheerleaders, a decisive officiating crew, tough competition, and a tailgate atmosphere, both teams represented well and showed great sportsmanship in the much hyped event. “I think this is my crowning achievement at HBS,” stated a teary eyed Pooja “Flip Cup” Natarajan (OF). However, the games were not without their controversy. Being in its first year of existence, the rules are still in need of considerable refinement. Nonetheless, the officials under the leadership of Martin Gilkes (OE) proved impartial and decisive.
After an opening ceremony featuring Indian “Bhanra” dancing to the beat of drummer Ajay Arora (ND) and an opening bow from Team Asia, both teams lined up for the 25 Beer Chug. Though Team Indo was heavily favored, Team Asia pulled out the victory with a six beer chug by Kenny “Pour It Down the Sink” Lee (OB). As the crowd erupted in cheer, Team Indo stood stunned at the result. To their credit, Team Asia trained with viewing sessions of “Beerfest” for improved technique and chugging water at Spangler for improved capacity.
The second event featured poor spelling on both parties. Though Rishi Chandna (OA), Veeral Desai (OH), and Jessica Wu (OJ) misspelled gimmes “camouflage, fete, and “reservoir” respectively, each team did spell two words correctly. Justin “You Know” Hu (OC) opened with “derogatory.” Miraj “Money” Patel (OI) and Angad “Clutch” Sawhney (OC) took a 2-1 lead with “tedious” and “feasibility.” However, Quan “Putnam Spelling Bee” Nguyen (OF) tied it on the last shot with “hallucination.”
On Wu’s misspelling of “reservoir”
“Growing up as a kid, I was never very good at spelling. It just wasn’t a major focus in our house. Mom made us solve quadratic equations and practice violin concertos instead. And once she felt that I had sufficiently practiced both, I’d run outside and flip little plastic cups and flower pots on our picnic table for fun.”
Wu’s childhood training paid off in the third event. Team Asia lead/anchor Danny “Spends Weeknights at the” Hong (OE) finished 0.8 seconds ahead of Team India’s anchorman. However, instant replay determined that teammate Lee had spilled approximately 17.2 mL of beer resulting in a 1.72 second penalty and a loss for Team Asia.
The fourth event was Culture Quiz which consisted of team culture questions. Team India had to answer questions about Asian culture and vice versa. Behind the cultured likes of Chris “Hapa” Chan (OE) and Edmund “Case-Cracker” Kim (OE), Team Asia easily pulled away with correct answers to questions such as, “What is the religion of India’s prime minister?”
After four events, the score was 24 to 20 in favor of Team Asia. Ping Pong Pang was no contest for Team India as they imposed their dominant skills. As coach Angad “Gumbo” Sawhney (OC) stated, “We practice this game every day of the week and twice on Sundays.” At the end of the contest, Sawhney breitling superocean replica, Karr “Ping” Narula (OC), Rishi “Pong” Chandna and Sonny “Pang” Ganguly (OD) remained alone and victorious.
Event five, Poetry Recitation, required each team to memorize and recite 21 lines from Shakespeare’s Henry V. Though Lee, Kim, Chan, and Hong gave gripping performances, they were no match for the thespian talents of Veeral “Abhishek” Desai (OH), Rishi “Deniro” Chandna (OA) and Narula, who broke out superior Shakespearian accents and gesticulations. Team India was awarded 1 point for poise and 7 points for content.
Team India now in the lead looked to cement a victory in Speed Quarters. Hu was narrowly defeated by Ganguly in what turned to be a head to head match-up after three teammates for both sides were eliminated. Team India secured an insurmountable lead. However, even with the outcome decided both teams still lined up for a Boat Race. Team India, now confident with victory in hand, drunk just as fast as Team Asia and the event ended in a tie.
“Team Asia came out strong and fired up. We just had to step up our game and we were able to do it. It was a fun evening and hopefully will be the start of a new tradition www.replicabestsale.co.uk,” stated Team India Captain Rishi Chandna.
Team Asia Captain Edmund Kim expressed similar feelings, “It was a great night. Kudos to Team Indo as they were clearly the more talented team in poetry recitation and ping-pong-pang. We are happy to have established our dominance in the beer chugging and flip cup.”
The event could not have happened without the officiating crew consisting of Martin “Downtown” Gilkes (OE), Seth “Ace” Cohen (OA) tag heuer replica for sale , Marissa Evans (ND), Ricardo “Sexican” Duenas (OH), and Scott “Chaps” Whiting (OC). A special thanks to all the supporters who came out to support both teams.
