ISLAND School students stole the limelight at the 24-hour pedal kart marathon held recently at Victoria Park by grabbing both the men's and ladies' champion titles.
The Islanders set new records with their third victory. The 10-member boys' kart raced home with 914 laps (703.7 kilometres), 26 more laps than last year, while the girls' team notched up a new record of 779 laps (559.8 kilometres).
Exhausted, the girls said they would go home and have a good sleep to ''celebrate'' their victory in the round-the-clock race.
Karen Abrahall, manager of the girls team, said the toughest part of the race was the first and last hour because of the hot weather. ''The heat is hard to bear as the race started and ended at three o'clock in the afternoon.'' She said the main reason for the team's victory was the effective design of their karts, which weighed only 24.9 kilograms (55 pounds) and were ''much lighter and faster than their rivals' karts''.
Of course, hard work and team spirit are also rewarding. Karen said their team started practising for the race three months ago.
''Although most team members took part in the race last year, practice is till very important,'' she said.
