The mood was electrifying in the colossal auditorium teeming with enthusiastic youngsters in their school uniforms.
More than 400 students zestfully participated in the regional finals of The Hindu Young World Quiz 2010 - the most eagerly awaited annual national event that was held at the Kalabharati auditorium here on Friday.
After exciting rounds of quizzing and a keen fight, the team of Jennifer Jacob and K. Sai Sriram from Akshara School, Kakinada, took away the coveted first prize trophy. Capt. S.S. Tripathi, Chairman and Managing Director of Dredging Corporation India, who was the chief guest for the occasion, congratulated the winners and gave away the prizes.
A preliminary written round was held to shortlist the six finalists.
Once the initial preliminary rounds came to an end, the dais sizzled with excitement as the finalists for the events were announced by the Quizmaster V.V. Ramanan.
What followed next was an exciting battle of wits.
Even as the finalists on stage played safe and allowed dicey questions to slip by, those in the audience grabbed them with gay abandon, trying out a variety of answers, till something clicked.
Steady lead
The winning team of Jennifer and Sai Sriram from Kakinada maintained a steady lead by scoring in the buzzer rounds with bonus points and thus went up to win the first prize.
They will be representing Visakhapatnam at the all-India finals to be held in Chennai.
Vizag second
In the second place were Swapneel Das and Prateek Anand Nanda (DPS, Ukkunagaram), the third prize was bagged by M. Suman Sangeeth and K.S. Pavan Gourang (De Paul School) while Saumyajeet Behera and Sumit Kumar Pradhan (DPS, Damanjodi) got the fourth prize, R. Rohit Varma and A. Sai Karthik (Aditya IIT Talent School, Kakinada) secured the fifth place and K.V. Anil and G. Sasank (De Paul School) finished sixth.
Apart from the city schools, schools from Bhubaneshwar, Kakinada and other outstation centres also participated in the quiz.
The title sponsor for the mega quiz show is Velammal Educational Trust and associate sponsor is HUL (Pepsodent).
The national sponsors are Eureka Forbes (Aqua Sue), Black Thunder, Gold Winner, Yo Bikes, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Vizag Steel Plant, Reckitt Benckiser (Cherry Blossom), Reynolds, Britannica Encyclopaedia, Penguin books and Firefox Bikes.
The beverage sponsor is Dabur, car sponsor is Tata Motors Ltd., and event managers are I Ads and Events.
The regional sponsors are Pages, MVS Jewel Park, Hirawat, Agarwal Home Comforts, Sri Sivarama Sweets, Fashion Silk Centre, Dolphin Coverage Solutions, Tummidi Brothers, The Gateway hotel, Palm Beach hotel, The Park and Vaibhav Jewellers.
