Winner all the way

N. NANDA KUMAR

It was a nail-biting finish... and Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram, came out on top of some 225 teams in this year's The Hindu-Young World Quiz (sponsored by Eveready) at Thiruvananthapuram last Sunday.

Jian Johnson and Jayendran, last year's champions, will once again go to Chennai for the 2001 national finals. Over 400 children from 41 schools in and around Thiruvananthapuram did the preliminary rounds. Six teams made it to the finals. Many schools had fielded up to six two-member teams. As the answers were being corrected, the audience - students, their parents and guests - who had come to the Tagore theatre auditorium were-asked the same questions as the participants. Those who knew the answers - in some cases even those who came up to the nearest answer - got heaps of prizes. The quizmaster had a tough time trying to give a chance to the eager students who wanted to answer the questions. The prizes consisted of T-shirts (from Letsquiz.com, the event managers), dictionaries , flashlights from Eveready, internet connection CD and browsing package, plus a cash prize of Rs 200 for those who had the right answer. The joy of the winners knew no bounds.

Seven rounds of quality questions (one audio-visual round and one visual round) had the teams thinking on their feet.

Loyola and St.Thomas got off to a flying start. But soon it was anyone's guess who would lead. As the buzzer round began, the air was thick with excitement. Loyola fumbled twice, St.Thomas got a couple of early successes, but the former prevailed -an 18 point final lead over St Thomas .

The winning team got a cash prize of Rs 4000 each, an all-terrain bike from TI Cycles, plus prizes from Eveready, Nutrine, Dishnet , Fourth R, Oxford University Press gave away dictionaries, the British Library offered memberships while the Quilon Radio Service gave away 15 Philips walkman sets. The runners-up received Rs 3000 each and the third prize winners got Rs 2000 each.

The sponsors include Eveready Industries India, Nutrine Confectionary Company, TI Cycles of India, the Fourth R, Dishnet DSL/Hub, Coke, the British Council, Quilon Radio Service, Thiruvananthapuram, and Oxford University Press.

Magician Gopinath Muthukad gave away the prizes but not before he pulled off a trick and had the crowd asking for more.

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