Loyola winners in 'Young World' Quiz

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT. 16. The Jayendran-Jian Johnson quizzing duo from the Loyola School here, racked their brains past 208 teams to emerge toppers in the Thiruvananthapuram finals of The Hindu-Young World Quiz-2001 held here this morning

This team which had emerged all-India champions in the quiz held the previous year will, once again, go to Chennai for this year's national finals.

The 416 participants from 41 schools in the district underwent a written, preliminary selection round this morning. The 25 questions of the preliminary round were flashed on the giant video screen put up at the Tagore Theatre, the venue for the competition.

The six teams for the Thiruvananthapuram finals were selected from among these 208 teams. Many schools had fielded up to six two-member teams.

Even as the answersheets of the preliminary round were being evaluated, the students, parents and guests who filled up the auditorium were asked the very same questions that had been asked to the participants.

There were prizes galore for those got the correct answers and even in some cases even for those who attempted to answer.

The quiz master had a tough time effecting an even distribution of chances to the eager students who wanted to answer the questions. The prize-bundle of a T-shirt, a dictionary, a flashlight, an internet connection CD and browsing package plus a cash prize of Rs. 200 for the children in the audience who had the right answers left many of them dazed with joy.

Apart from the Loyola School, one team from the St. Thomas Central School and two each from the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and the Christ Nagar School were selected for the final round.

The quizzers who made it to the finals were given rousing cheers by their respective supporters as they came on to the stage. The finals featured seven rounds of quality questions, including one audio-visual round and one visual round.

The various rounds had attractive names too, such as `Masthead', `Stop Press' and `Plain Vanilla'.

Though the teams from Loyola and St. Thomas sprinted away from the rest of the pack right from the word go, there was no predicting which way the contest would go as fortunes waxed and waned on the stage.

Even at the beginning of the last round-the `buzzer round' where a team could pocket up to a 100 points from the 10 questions, there was no predicting the winner.

The buzzer round was the only one where there were penalty points for the wrong answer. Even though Loyola sustained a couple of penalties and St. Thomas a couple of early successes, it was the former who ultimately prevailed, with an 18-point final lead over the St. Thomas team who emerged the runners up.

The prizes for the finalist teams were given away by the noted magician, Mr. Gopinath Muthukad. There was entertainment in that too, with the magician tearing up today's city edition of The Hindu into many pieces and then making the newspaper whole again in a jiffy.

While the winning team members got a cash prize of Rs. 4,000 each, the runners up got a cash prize of Rs. 3,000 each. All the members of the finalist teams were given prize kits in addition to their cash awards. The members of the winning team were also presented with an `All-terrain Bike' each.

The Oxford University Press, the British Library and the Quilon Radio Service were the regional sponsors of The Hindu-Young world Quiz-2001.

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