The Hindu
Mangalore, Nov 3: "They shifted gears and hammered the opposition," noted quiz master V.V. Ramanan. This best describes the win of Little Rock Indian School 'B' team from Brahmavar in the Mangalore regional finals of The Hindu Young World Quiz 2007 here on Friday.
The team won the quiz with a massive difference of 41 points over its nearest rivals.
The team, which incidentally topped the preliminaries, consistently scored through five of the six rounds, failing to add to its tally in the extramarks.com-question-the-answer round.
Going into the sixth and final round with a comfortable lead of 23 points over St. Theresa's School, Arjun Raghunath and Apoorva Chandra S. put up a stand out performance in Amity University Shoot to Glory round scoring 24 points to clinch the issue.
The command of these ninth standard students on questions posed to them in the various rounds named after event sponsors left other finalists perplexed.
Raihaan and Rajath K.M. of St. Theresa's School finished second with 36 points. They managed to answer one question in this round to assure themselves of the second spot. Mueen Ahmed and Mohammad Shajaz of Beary's Public School scored vital six points in the final round to finish third with 31 points. They went on to deny the second team from St. Theresa's represented by Shakti S. and Karthik R. a podium finish, who finished fourth with 25 points.
St. Ann's High School and Little Rock Indian School 'A' team finished fifth and sixth in the event with a tally of 25 and 19 points respectively.
It was not merely the finalists who gave a display of their cerebral talents. Aniketh in the audience who answered "Why Mangalore is also known as 'Kudla' in Tulu" not only took home some richly deserved prize but won thunderous applause. His answer that Kudla in Tulu meant the confluence or junction of the Nethravathi and the Phalguni left even Mr. Ramanan speechless.
'The Google Rishis'
The team name "The Google Rishis" earned Edgar A. J. Pereira and Abijith Kumar Chandra of Lourdes Central School the prize for the best team name.
Alpha Nemesis, the team name chosen by Shalom Aaron and Deepika Vasani of St. Mary's Composite Pre-University College and Little Einsteins by Anvika Ashok and Anita S. Nelliat won them the second and third prizes in a competition for the best team names.
K. Ujwala Shenoy and Abhijith S. of S.M.S. English Medium School, Brahmavar, and Abhishek Cariappa and Rahul Machaiah of K.A.L.S., Gonikoppa, were declared the top two best outstation teams that took part in the preliminaries.
In all, 220 teams participated in the event being held for the fifth time in this city. The winners will represent Mangalore in the All India finals, which would be held in Chennai on December 3.
P. Tamilvanan, Chairman, New Mangalore Port Trust, who gave away the prizes was all praise for the knowledge skills possessed by the students. He showered praises on Aniketh. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Indian Oil Corporation Limited, NMPT, Dakshina Kannada Milk Union Limited, and School Book Company were the regional sponsors. Amity University was the title sponsor. Associate sponsors were Lotte BooProo and Tara. National sponsors were Extramarks.Com, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cycle Brand Agarbatties, Vizag Steel, Reynolds, and Visit Malaysia 2007.Real fruit juice was the beverage sponsor.The event was conducted by Quizwalahs.