It was a clash of the Loyolites as two teams from Loyola School in the city battled it out for the coveted position of regional winner of The Hindu Young World Quiz 2011.
Ajay A. Kumar and R. Rajath of Loyola School were crowned the Winners of the Regional Finals held here on Monday.
The Hindu Young World Quiz 2011— a Newspaper In Education initiative of The Hindu — saw 20,000 students from 5,000 schools participating in 16 centres across south India.
The participants for the regional finals were chosen from more than 300 teams from schools across Thiruvananthapuram. The teams went through a preliminary round, held on Monday morning, where the participants had to answer 25 questions.
Matrix of posers
Shortly afterwards, the six regional finalists took their seats on stage where quiz master V.V. Ramanan was ready for them with his set of nerve-wracking questions. What stood between the six teams and the title of regional winner was a matrix of questions.
From Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple to Mannathu Padmanabhan; from identifying ‘the man behind the mask'— cricketer Sreesanth — to identifying the band behind a song clip that was played — ‘Avial'... the questions hidden in the matrix were mostly about different aspects of Kerala.
Often, the teams were so quick on their buzzers that Mr. Ramanan could hardly finish his questions. When answers eluded the quizzers on stage, their ‘non-playing' counterparts in the audience fell over each other in giving the correct answer and took home many goodies in the bargain. According to Mr. Ramanan, students of the Thiruvananthapuram region had set very high standards, and were quick and precise with their answers.
The last round saw Ajay and Rajath doing all that they could to maintain the lead, and the second team from Loyola School comprising K.P. Harikrishnan and Aravind Senan had to be satisfied with the runners-up slot. The third position went to N. Ala Mohammed and Sooraj Suresh of Christ Nagar Higher Secondary School.
Team-Loyola went on to win the national finals held in the evening.
“Last time, we had won the regional finals and that is when we decided that this time the goal would be a spot in the national final,” Rajath had said prior to the grand finale.
“This is a prestigious quiz and it has been their aim to get back the championship title to their school since its win in 2001,” said Anil Kumar, Ajay's father.
Trophies
The winners, the first runner-up, and the second runner-up in the regional competition took home trophies from The Hindu and Rs.15,000, Rs.12,000, and Rs.10,000, respectively, along with various other prizes. The teams that came fourth, fifth, and sixth received Rs.2,000 each.
The regional sponsors of the event were Noorul Islam Civil Service Academy (NICS), Windsor Rajadhani, Kowdiar, Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation Ltd, Style Plus, Babas-the complete photo studio, Supreme Nutrifud, and Mahindra Holidays. The logistics partner was Cosmos Tours & Travels. The hospitality sponsors were Hotel South Park and Hotel Horizon.
The event manager was I ads & Events.
