A primary school sports day event in Negeri Sembilan has sparked controversy after a child who came in last at a race was crowned the winner, leading a concerned parent to question the fairness of the results online.
Amid the backlash, a woman believed to be one of the school’s teachers stepped forward to clarify what actually happened.
Last place crowned as champion?
According to mStar, the whole controversy began when the woman claimed that the student who should’ve been awarded first place was demoted to second place, while the actual third-place runner ended up receiving the gold medal.
Teacher wasn’t honest with the race results. The student who was supposed to get first place was moved to second, and the one who came in third was named the winner.
She also posted a video of the incident, where it showed the child, clad in a yellow t-shirt, receiving the medal.
Surprisingly, even the child’s mother also expressed confusion over the decision, saying, “That’s my child in yellow. I didn’t ask for my kid to win. It just happened suddenly.”
This comes after netizens speculated that she might have “bribed” the teachers into awarded her child first place.
Teacher explains
According to a teacher, she said two students dressed in red were not listed for the Year One race.
Since only one preschooler registered, the teacher invited the other two children to join in to make the event more lively.
She added that the medals given to them were purely for encouragement, and that both sets of parents were informed about this on the day itself.
The teacher also mentioned that the school had apologised directly to one of the parents involved on the day of the event.
Our school isn’t big, and we don’t have many students. But the teachers still try their best to give the children a chance to enjoy sports and learn through experience,” she said.
“It’s unfortunate that this went viral and has led to misunderstanding. Even students and families who weren’t involved are now getting caught in the crossfire.
“I’m not taking any sides. But if things can still be resolved with a proper discussion, let’s do that. No need to let those who did nothing wrong suffer too,” she added.
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