“This is the final call for Boys A, B, C grade 100 metres,” announced in the loudspeakers hanging above you on the Sports Day. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? You might have wondered who had been speaking in the microphone for the entire Sports Day. I happened to be one of them!

1. Duties

   1. Summoning Competitors

As MCs, we sat in front of the microphones at the marshalling point and summoned competitors to events which were going to start, usually with the “first call”, “second call”, and “final call”. If you miss the first call, you still have a chance to participate in the event. However, if you miss the first and second calls, you must pay attention to the third one, which is the final call; otherwise, you will be disqualified. Participating in an event will help your House gain points, so remember to pay attention to the announcements. There may be some posters in your House area telling you when events will start, but PAY ATTENTION TO THE ANNOUNCEMENTS because events may start earlier or later than scheduled.

1. 2. Announcing the Presentation of Medals

“1X XXX X House, 2X XXX X House, 2X XXX X House, please come to the marshals to receive your medals,” announced the MCs summoning the winners. This is the long-awaited, most exciting moment for you and your House members — the presentation of medals. We would first summon winners and then invite a guest or teacher to present the medals. While the medals were being presented, we would announce the winners’ names as well as their classes and Houses. I especially liked to read the names (in Cantonese) because doing so was sometimes challenging.

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2. Funny Things

I can remember many funny things that happened on the Sports Days. Here are a few of them:

1. 1. Summoning the Winners

We had to summon every winner to be presented medals (as mentioned above). Still, we might run into some problems, such as having difficulty pronouncing their names and waiting for awardees to turn up. I remember calling the same name five times with a groaning voice because I had been calling for the missing awardee for ten whole minutes. In the end, we had to ask the two awardees who were waiting to leave without medals for the time being thanks to the award who had failed to turn up.

1. 2. Announcing an Event After a Sudden Announcement

You might have been shocked to hear an event announcement suddenly (usually for relay race events), telling you to report to the start zone at once. For sudden event changes, we would immediately make the final call. We would typically rush through the announcement because that was a “sudden important announcement”.

1. 3. Stopping the Prize Presentation Announcement Suddenly

As previously mentioned, a sudden announcement might be required very suddenly. Sometimes it could be in the middle of another announcement. If that were a prize presentation announcement, we would have to end it prematurely with an unfinished presentation ceremony. I think the winners might have been frustrated by such eventualities!