Activities organised in 2021
- Sports day
After cancellation of the ITC Sports Day in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, the PVI ignited the organisation in 2021 following the relaxation of the regulations and restrictions in the Netherlands. But with the summer break approaching rapidly, this all had to be organized in two weeks’ time. With the help of PVI volunteers, the ITC Restaurant, Korfbal Rigtersbleek and SAB we were able to pull it off with an amazing 125 registered athletes, supporters and volunteers on July 9. About the volunteers; the 4 referees have an outstanding record of 129 years being connected to ITC:
- Jaap Duim (soccer) worked at ITC for 37 years and had his retirement 11 years ago
- Karl Grabmaier (volleyball) worked at ITC for 36 years and had his retirement 12 years ago
- Jan de Ruiter (soccer) worked at ITC for 22 years and retired 16 years ago
- Dick van der Zee (volleyball) works at ITC for 34 years and retired 12 years ago
The host, Herman Baltink from KV Rigtersbleek, worked at ITC for 41 years and retired 8 years ago.
They all enjoy very much supporting the annual sports day and we appreciate it undoubtedly.
Many things remained the same, though at 1.5m distance; Volleyball, Soccer, Running, Jeu de Boules and the SAB Back2School activities were set up. But the traditional BBQ was replaced by a bag with a healthy snack to prevent people cluttering together at the BBQ trying to safeguard their pieces of meat from burning or hijacking.
SOCCER
The soccer competition attracted a massive number of 7 teams which required a very intense schedule in which all teams had to play each other. 21 matches were scheduled in a little more than 2 hours. In the European Championship 2021, it took more than 1 week to schedule this number of matches. Dedicated referees were once again the retired ITC staff members Jan de Ruiter and Jaap Duim. Positioned at strategic locations they handled the sometimes overheated situations with care and authority. To provide them with some time to relax and replenish, the teams provided stand-in referees.
The schedule was almost completely maintained despite the difference in the definition of playing time (one referee stopped the time every time the ball was not in play). Playing 6 matches in such a short period had quite an impact on some of the players and it was most probably the experience which helped the good old Tukkerteam to claim the overall victory (5 wins and 1 tie with Unathletico Twente). It was ESA team who grabbed the silver medals with 1 point more than Unatletico Twente. Nederlands Vijftal lost 5 matches and had 1 tie scoring 1 point in total for finishing last. They won the competition for best team outfit but they could have at least tried to change the 0 into a 1 on their shirt (to match the event date and their score).
VOLLEYBALL
The volleyball competition with 3 teams was intensive, exciting and at a high level. In quite some matches the ball was not just hit once to get it over the net, but really set up for (smashing) finishes. The teams had to play each other 2 times and guess what: all scored 2 wins by once beating the other team and once losing that battle.
The referees, former ITC staff members Karl Grabmaier and Dick van der Zee, decided to count the point scored and conceived. Marxan had -11, The Antibodies -1 and The D-ESA-ster Team +6. Thus the final was played between The D-ESA-ster Team and The Antibodies. In the qualifying round, their summed score was 34-34 and thus everybody was awaiting a close match. And it was, but luckily, in these COVID times, The Antibodies won 30-28.
JEU DE BOULES
Every year there are competitions in competitions. Even in Jeu de Boules which by nature is a relaxing, friendly game. Discussions, disputes, expert reviews of distances between balls can reach heated temperatures, especially under the prevailing sunny circumstances. 5 teams registered. For some of the participants JdB has no secrets; they have played even in the same composition for many years in a row. For others, it was their first experience and/or also their first time to play the game with their partner (Teresa Brefeld was teamed with Marjan Moradi).
The experienced team CCC (Roelof and Roland) won all 4 matches, but their most important win was against their long-lasting opponent; Bitterballen. Despite the gigantic loss (13-0) Bitterballen collected enough points to finish 2nd before GDFIAWL.
RUNNING
The 40m qualification was set up on the artificial grass with measurement tape and electronic timing. It did not attract participants straight away, but as soon as some tried they inspired others to attempt to beat the best times. The kids had way more energy than the adults; Dirk van der Velde (age 9) attempted 10 times and only in his 9th attempt ran his fastest time (8.31s) claiming a place in the boys final with Kaiden Hecker (10yr, 7.03s) and Aart van der Velden (age 5, 11.34s). But Aart had spent all his energy and thus was replaced by his sister Marieke (age 7) in the mixed final. Marieke had qualified with 9.18s which is a very good time at such a young age. Despite her good qualifying time, she could not withstand the blistering speed of Kaiden who won the 40m mixed final.
In total 6 females tried to qualify for the 40m finals. Memory and Aleid saved their energy because they were also playing soccer. Aleid qualified with 6.59 a mere 0.13 seconds before memory. Yiwei Duan ran 7.48s which was also good enough for reaching the final. The naked eye was not good enough to determine the winner in the final. Luckily the volunteers recorded a video on which it was clear that Memory won with an inch or less.
The males qualifying round looked a bit tenser. Quite some men attempted but the qualifying time of Fardad was out of reach (5.49s). Srikumar and Vaibhav came closest with 6.13 and 6.26s. It was no surprise (despite the fact that Fardad was also playing in the intense soccer competition) that Fardad claimed the 40m male championship.
At the end of the day, Memory was asked whether she was willing to run the 1 mile since there were actually no other competitors listed. That did ring a bell and quickly others were signing up. In the end, the list counted 14 participants. Including the 40m champions, Memory, Kaiden and Fardad. After some important instructions not to start too fast, listen to your body (after such an intense afternoon) all 14 blistered away. Kaiden, coached by his dad, had taken the instruction no to start too fast serious and cruised over the track, overtaking some fast starters in the 2nd round to finish overall 3rd (and as fastest boy/youngster). Beating his dad, no Chris you did not let him win 😉, in the final hundreds of meters. The fastest runner was Junior who took the lead right from the start.
He was followed by Memory who thus claimed not only the 40m sprint title but also the 1 mile championship. Mira and Sharvi ranked 2nd and 3rd in the female 1 mile race. Silver and Bronze in the male competition were handed out to Chris and Amir.
BACK2SCHOOL
It is a well-known phenomenon that the Back2School activities at first do not attract attention and participants. Like the 40m running. But as soon as some try, a crowd gathers and everyone tries the traditional games. SAB president Prashant with his crew had set up 4 activities: sack race, spoon race, koekhappen and blikgooien. All activities led to hilarious situations and strong competitions. This setup is definitely something to cherish and maintain. Supporters, children, volunteers everyone enjoyed it.
Rests to say that we definitely hope to be able to organize the annual Sports Day annually again in 2022 with the traditional BBQ.
Testing some widgets/interfaces
Photo album widget (requires a new widget per photo gallery ;-()
Slideshow widget requires to add individual photos one by one with required titles and many mouseclicks. Eg not possible to select at one multiple photos from a folder to use in the slideshow ;-)
x
- ESA Estec Virtual tour
On the 26th of May between 14.00 and 16.00 hours a virtual tour through the Zoom platform was hosted to give us a broadened look at how processes work within ESA/ESTEC in Noordwijk. The virtual tour took place in the form of short films and PowerPoint presentations. Robert Willems, our host/presenter went through different subjects to give the participants a view on what preparations need to be done before we can get a space vessel into space: from testing the space vessel to the research and development and financials done. We even saw how complicated eating food and food preparing can be in space.
It was a very informative tour and hopefully, we can do this tour again, although not virtual but for real!.
x
- Interactive Online lecture by Maarten van Aalst
“Reality Bites; how the new climate normal is shaping science, policy and practice”
The invitation was teasing enough to lure some 25 participants in the Spatial Chat online environment. A mixture of staff, former staff and students attended the presentation “Reality Bites; how the new climate normal is shaping science, policy and practice” in the virtual ITC auditorium.
Prof van Aalst presented new scientific insights, experiences from the frontline of humanitarian aid and stories from the backroom of politics, UN and elsewhere. His enthusiasm or better his engagement to the subject matter was evident and the serious undertone came across very well. To get the participants involved he presented several cartoons to which new texts had to be found by small groups. With the first cartoon, participants were still a bit hesitant, but with the following cartoon (Alex Gregory, https://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoon?searchID=CC143369) very interesting texts were proposed:
We used to be able to walk to grandpa - now we need a boat
Good that you like sailing, son
This is where Utrecht sank
This used to bae a landfill, now it is filing up with water
At around 5.30 the presentation finished but not before some challenging questions had been discussed and answered. Obviously, being at ITC everyone was intrigued by the topic and the vulnerable future we are looking at.
