The 2026 Sports Day is an upcoming Sports Day of Nobel International School which is scheduled to take place on an undetermined date in 2026. As of the predictions by Wei Yiang, the 2026 Sports Day is predicted for Friday, 10th April 2026.
Slamdunk is the defending champion of this Sports Day and is poised to be a formidable force in the 2026 Sports Day.
The 2026 Sports Day is the first Sports Day to include students from Year 7 born in the year 2014. This means it would be the first Sports Day to include Bullseye members born during the first victory year in 2014. This would be crucial for the Bullseye members because it would mean revisiting a history of Bullseye from the time they were born.
Background
Prior to the 20th Anniversary Sports Day in 2024, Bullseye managed to win every Sports Day since 2014 with the exclusion of the 2017 and 2018 Sports Days. At the same time, excluding the 2013, 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Nobel Cups, it managed to win all Nobel Cups held in history, and also every single Founder's Run since 2018, no thanks to Operation Speedrunner, formulated by Lau Wei Yiang and Caleb Chuang.
However, Bullseye had plunged into a record performance freefall following the 20th Anniversary Sports Day, where it bagged third place, and in the 2025 Sports Day, where it came in last place. The dismayal performance of Bullseye raised concerns on the future performance of Bullseye.
Since the 2016 Sports Day, Bullseye had not managed to outperform or outdo the result in 2016, 2015 or 2014, which formed the previous victory streak of Bullseye. The second victory streak from 2019 to 2023, despite being longer than the initial victory streak of 2014 to 2016, showed Bullseye struggling to cope. Each victory, despite occuring at each other, took place in a series of near misses in which Bullseye almost lost to every other house. The 2023 Sports Day victory, which included the victories of the 2023 Founder's Run and 2023 Nobel Cup, was taken by most observers as possible because of the delay of Sports Day due to the heatwave. Had the Sports Day occurred on 23rd June 2023 as planned, it could have had hastened the preparations and caused Bullseye to perform badly. The heatwave bought time for Bullseye to regroup and the management to reallocate the Sports Day events which gave Bullseye a boost. In the 2022 overall standings, Bullseye almost lost but managed to ward off a close fight with Homerun. In 2020, Bullseye managed to ward off Slamdunk after losing in the Nobel Cup 2019, and in the 2019 Sports Day, Bullseye almost lost had the Nobel Cup been awarded to Homerun, which turned out to be false after an error in the badminton scores.
In the 2017 and 2018 Sports Days, Bullseye almost came close to victory, either through the 648-649 gap or the initial lead in the 2018 Sports Day standings. In 2016, 2015 and 2014, Bullseye mostly led the standings in the competition.
The exodus of graduating Bullseye members in Year 11 every year resulted in the loss of Bullseye's major talent. The process of retaining talent is to pass down skills from graduating Bullseye members to the new, incoming members, either through new students or through incoming students from Year 6. The 2026 Sports Day is the last out of three Sports Days to coincide with a victory from Bullseye from ten years ago which formed the first victory streak of Bullseye from 2014 to 2016. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, three graduating batches had resulted in information not being passed down from the older students to the younger students to retain the Sports Day concept.
Proposal to win both the Elementary School and Junior and Senior School Sports Days
On 28th February 2025, following Bullseye's loss in the Sports Day, Tan Jun Ee, an alumni of Nobel International School, proposed for Bullseye to win both the Elementary School and Junior and Senior School Sports Days. The victory of Bullseye which included the multiple streaks and victories of Bullseye fall in the Junior and Senior School's Sports Days. Conversely, in the Elementary School, Bullseye had only experienced two Sports Day victories from 2012 to 2025, which were achieved during the 2012 overall scores and the 2018 Sports Day. This means that the Elementary School students had not achieved a Bullseye victory streak before. Bullseye's best performance was during the 2012 Elementary School overall tally, in which Bullseye won the Games Gala, Sports Gala and Family Marathon Day. For comparison, there are a total of eight Bullseye Sports Day victories, eight Founder's Run victories and six Nobel Cup victories, bringing the tally to a total of 22 victories within the timespan of 2014 to 2025.
The age groups executing the victory of Bullseye as well as the policy differences for the Elementary School and Junior and Senior School vary, which, in the latter, leads to increased criticism of teachers than the former. The Elementary School environment is highly controlled as opposed to the Junior and Senior School, and the age groups (11-17 for the Junior and Senior School and 6-12 for the Elementary School)_are significant in respect to the situation. The ability of Junior and Senior School students to have greater independence and possess more freedom, in the field of owning handphones or having social media accounts, signifies the difference in which a Bullseye victory streak can thrive. Junior and Senior School students are given a greater leeway to return to Nobel International School on non-schooling days as opposed to Elementary School students. The thinking of Junior and Senior School students long term as opposed to Elementary School students brings impetus to a Bullseye victory for many years.
The proposal can only be achieved if Nobel International School combines the Elementary School and Junior and Senior School Sports Days which can lead to increased attendance for the Sports Day. However, it would still be quite challenging for both schools to collaborate together due to the age gap.
Should Bullseye win both the Elementary School and the Junior and Senior School Sports Days in 2026, it would be the biggest project for Bullseye ever undertaken since the launch of Operation Speedrunner, and also the first Bullseye victory in the Junior and Senior School since the year 2023. Currently, the 2023 Sports Day victory, which culminates the five-year victory streak from 2019 to 2023, constitutes the single largest Bullseye project to date, preceding the first Bullseye victory streak which was completed in 2016. That victory streak constituted students from Year 11 to Year 3 who were in Nobel in the year 2019, with planning involving an additional five preceding generations of graduating classes from 2014 to 2018. If the timeline were to be rewinded back to 2013 or 2014, the planning just to achieve five victory years alone, involved every student in Nobel at the time in 2013 or 2014 from Year 1 to 11 who have since graduated from Nobel.
Predicted dates for Sports Day
In March 2025, Wei Yiang unveiled a series of plans which include the 2026 Sports Day and Founder's Run. Under Wei Yiang's predicted plan by the Management, the Founder's Run would be included in the Sports Day scores for the first time since the 20th Anniversary Sports Day. The Founder's Run was proposed for 6th or 7th February 2026, with the Sports Day occurring after Hari Raya Aidilfitri, and as such, Sports Day is predicted for Friday, 10th April 2026.
According to Wei Yiang, he had predicted that the management team, upon realizing the negative impacts of scheduling Sports Day too early in the year, will try to avoid scheduling the Sports Day too early following feedback from students and parents. Traditionally, Nobel International School holds Sports Day in the beginning of the year, during the months of March and April annually. However, following the Covid 19 pandemic, June was designated as the months for sports-related events. The calendar is considered very packed for Nobel International School due to the scheduling of major examinations in order to cope with the curriculum, hence Nobel International School normally schedules Sports Day in March or April annually.
Nobel International School holds the academic year from January to December annually. The second half of the academic year is normally a busy time for the school as the onus of the school is to prepare for the IGCSE examiations scheduled for October and November. The school also holds assessments and examinations in February, May, August and October. The IGCSE Trials take place in August annually, and hence, the only time to hold a Sports Day and Founder's Run without major issues is either March or April.
However, due to the timing of Ramadan and Hari Raya Aidilfitri, which, since 2021, had been held in April or March, it would be very difficult for Nobel to organize such an arrangement for the Sports Day due to the fasting month, thus resulting in Sports Day being held in June or July, which is after the Mid Year Examinations but before the Assessment 2 and IGCSE Trials. June is considered the appropriate timeframe for a Sports Day because it is held in the middle of the year, and anticipation generally builds up prior to the event.
Date for festive seasons
If a Sports Day is held in April and the Founder's Run in February, the 2026 Sports Day preparations will need to pass through the Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri season. The Chinese New Year is scheduled for Tuesday, 17th February 2026, the Ramadan is scheduled for 19th February, and the Hari Raya Aidilfitri for 20th March 2026. A hypothetical Founder's Run will need to be held before the Chinese New Year, and the hypothetical Sports Day in late March to the first half of April 2026. Hence, Wei Yiang presented these predicted dates. The last time a Sports Day date lineup was predicted correctly was for the 2020 Sports Day. If the Founder's Run is held in February, before Sports Day, there is a high chance that the Founder's Run can contribute points to Sports Day and the 2024 format can be reused.
Alternative dates
Alternatively, the Management has a few other choices of dates for the Sports Day and Founder's Run. It is also entirely possible that the Sports Day, should it be held in the middle of 2026, be scheduled for 26th June, 3rd July or 10th July 2026, and the Founder's Run can possibly be scheduled for 10th April 2026 instead.
Predicted logistics for Sports Day
Overall
The Management Team is currently deliberating of putting the Sports Day 2026 in April 2026, with a further back-up in June or July 2026, and it is currently understood, according to Wei Yiang, that the Management is preferring the April 2026 format as the preferred choice to hold the Sports Day in 2026 in order for June and July to be scheduled for other events.
Venue
The Management Team is considering to either rent the Bukit Jalil National Stadium for the 2026 Sports Day or to revert the venue back to the Panasonic Stadium. However, the choice of the venue, as predicted by Wei Yiang, will be based on whether to combine the Elementary School and Junior and Senior School's Sports Days. According to Wei Yiang's predictions, Ms Ingel is more or less in favor of combining the Sports Day in order to reduce costs, but however, the Management will only make the final decision once the booking of the venue is confirmed.
Founder's Run
Following the 2025 Founder's Run, the Management is predicted to be considering to revert the Founder's Run to a Friday format, taking into account the low turnout for Founder's Run 2025. The Founder's Run 2025 had seen only 200 of all the 600 students turn up for the Founder's Runn o n12th April. This caused concern of the declining popularity of the run. Wei Yiang predicts that the management would not want to remove the Founder's Run as it is considered a Character Transformation exercise to give back to the community as well as a school tradition. Instead, the management will revert the Founder's Run to a Friday format or a weekday format. Should the Management decide to hold Founder's Run, it will be on Friday, 6th February 2026 in order to accommodate the convenient schedule as it is between Chinese New Year and Thaipusam.
The Management is also, according to Wei Yiang, considering moving the Founder's Run to either Bukit Kiara or the Perdana Botanical Gardens in Kuala Lumpur to bring a new twist to the Founder's Run.
Wei Yiang's 2026 Sports Day Banner
For the 2026 Sports Day,
SPORTS DAY
<<< 2025 Sports Day 2026 Sports Day 2027 Sports Day >>>
[preceding event] [current Sports Day] [succeeding event]
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FOUNDER'S RUN
<<< 2025 Founder's Run 2026 Founder's Run 2027 Founder's Run >>>[preceding event] [current Founder's Run] [succeeding event]
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