‘Heads up!’

‘Heads down!’

‘Go!’

So much for thinking fast. For a big guy, Fisk was extremely quick. We were side by side, but his weight was pushing me over to the right. There was no way I could hold my ground. I only had one choice. As I started to lose my balance, I swung away to the right, did a full 360 degree spin and raced diagonally across the sand towards Jack’s end.

I was behind everyone but catching up with every stride. Pumping my arms, I locked onto a flag that I thought I could make. I was going to have to dive through the bodies to get there.

With about ten metres to go, I took a couple of massive paces then threw myself into the air at what must have been the last flag standing. Suddenly I realised that I was going to be about a metre short. I landed hard on the sand.

But the momentum of the dive bounced me onwards, just enough to clasp the flag with my outstretched fingertips.

Rolling over onto my back, I clutched the stick tightly, afraid to let it go. I looked down the beach towards Fisk. He had a flag in his hand and was scowling.

He tossed it to a teacher and started walking towards me, then thought better of it and headed back to the start.

‘What happened, Mitch?’ asked Jack.

‘Fisk tried to eliminate me early, but I scraped through. What’s the plan now?’

‘This time we make the last move. I’ll hang back, then get next to him and try to knock him out,’ said Jack.

I must have looked impressed.

‘By being faster, stupid, not literally!’

‘Jack, you’ve got a great chance of winning this. Don’t get yourself stuck near Fisk,’ I said.

But the teachers must have realised something was going on, because we were called back to the start and told to line up in the order read out by Mr Spears.

From the top it went: Will, Fisk, Matthew, Jason, Lan, Jack, Theo and me. Fisk had a brilliant position.

‘I’ll go left,’ Jack whispered to me as we lined up.

‘Jack, just take the first flag you see.’

There was plenty of noise coming from the kids lined up along the edge of the race. There were even some other people who had strolled over to check out what was going on.

I lay down on my stomach. I was feeling out of breath but wanting to get on with it. They sure weren’t giving us much time between races.

Mr Spears barked his instructions and once again we were flying through the sand towards four flags about fifteen metres away. I could see Fisk over on the left. Then I focused on my race. I was well ahead of Theo on my left and decided to go for the flag furthest on the right. I timed my dive better this race, and grabbed the flag before my body hit the sand.

I looked over to my left to survey the scene. Fisk, Jack and Lan had scored the other flags. Theo had missed out. I took a few deep breaths.

‘Three minutes,’ Matty shouted. ‘Head back to the starting line again, guys.’

This time I was sure I wouldn’t be so lucky with my position in the line. And I was right. I didn’t know which would be worse, being next to Jack or being next to Fisk. I got both of them. Lan was on the outside left, then Jack, me and Fisk on the other end.

If I could at least get into the final, then I would score, at worst, five points. I sensed that Fisk was a better swimmer, but I could probably match him on the board. I didn’t really care about winning. It was more about beating Fisk, even if we came fourth and fifth – or worse.

We lined up and waited for the instruction to lie down. I didn’t know about the other three, but I wasn’t feeling so sparky anymore. My legs felt heavy and the last thing I wanted to do was sprint through soft sand to dive for a flag again.

Hopefully the others felt the same way.

This time my start wasn’t so flash. I was behind right from the beginning and that didn’t change all the way down the sand. Fisk powered across in front of me and stayed there. Jack had his side stitched up and Fisk had me on toast. I eased up. Fisk had won this. I wanted to conserve energy. I was going to have to put everything into the last two legs – the board and the swim.

Fisk was tough, there was no doubting it. And he let me know it, too.

I was definitely barracking for Jack in the final. Not only would it be great for him to win but he could take points away from Fisk. Jack knew he had to get ahead of Fisk early so Fisk couldn’t use his bulk to get Jack off-balance.