By IANS,
New Delhi : A Mumbai-based school swept a national-level quiz on the Olympics Games – the Samsung Olympic Games Quest – billed as the biggest Olympic quiz for schoolchildren in a nail-biting contest in the capital Tuesday.
Mumbai-based Apeejay School won the gold medal and a 36-inch flat screen television, beating St. James School of Kolkata, National Centre for Excellence from Bangalore and New Era Public School of New Delhi.
The quiz at the Siri Fort auditorium was conducted by VJ-turned-actor Gaurav Kapoor.
The hall, packed to capacity with nearly 1,000 schoolchildren from across the country, resembled a sporting arena with formal cheerleaders, drummers, dancers, banners, buntings and a crowd whose cheers reverberated through the confines of the sprawling auditorium.
There was a special contest for cheerleaders and the banners too.
The four teams for the national finals were chosen from the regional final rounds held in Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai on July 22, July 24 and July 29 respectively.
The national finals were preceded by the Delhi finals to pick up the finalist from the capital.
“This year, our focus has been on the Olympic Games. We have been busy organising the Olympic Games Quest for schools, so there was no time for other activity. But we generally associate ourselves with activities that promote sports. It has a very positive fallout,” Ravinder Zutshi, deputy managing director of Samsung India, told IANS.
Samsung India is the sponsor of the Indian team for the Beijing Olympics.
The quiz, which began around 10 a.m., picked pace an hour later after the New Era Public School, located in the capital’s Mayapuri area, clinched the Delhi regional final round. Then, it was time for the national finals.
The teams sweated as the questions got tougher.
For instance, the question “Which Indian viceroy’s son known as Neville took part in the London Olympic Games in 1908?” drew vague responses like Lord D’Souza. The answer was Lord Lytton.
The final session comprised rounds – Medley Race, Bull’s Eye, Photo Finish or the visual round and Last Sprint, which was the buzzer round. A tie between St. James and Apeejay School was broken with a sudden death poser. Apeejay School got the right answer.
The quizmaster kept the children glued to their seats with his engaging brand of ‘veejaying and quizzing’. The Times of India group partnered the quiz.