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Only one team can win an event and no doubt it was simply the best combination of the day, homeside Birla Public School (BPS), that became triumphant in the much-awaited Indian Women’s Association’s Centrepoint Inter-School Quiz 2014 contest yesterday. |
The 18th annual edition of the quiz contest was held at Basant Kumar Birla Auditorium at BPS for the third successive year, making it the event’s somewhat “permanent” and familiar venue, as described by an organiser before the start of the final.
The BPS trio, Sarthak Behl, Kevin Koshy and Harikrishnan Kodamana finished ahead of the rest of the contenders, with a thumping score of 150 points. The victory was BPS’s third in four years since 2011, the team losing the title only last year, when it came second.
DPS-Modern Indian School came a distant second (80 points) and MES Indian School were third (50). Philippine School of Doha (PSD) came fourth, followed by last year’s winners Doha Modern Indian School, and Al Khor International School respectively.
The preliminary round of the contest on Thursday drew a record participation of about 500 children from 14 schools, including debutant participants American Academy and Stafford International School.
As in the previous year, the show anchor and television personality Mohan Kapur kept the entire proceedings a lively affair throughout the final.
Kapur’s intermittent questions to the audience saw a number of enthusiastic quiz buffs walking away with a host of prizes, thanks to the title sponsors Centrepoint.
Debkumar Mitra, who accompained Kapur this year to run the show, was once again the programme’s researcher.
One doesn’t remember any other inter-school quiz competitions held in recent years featuring these many prizes for the participants. Each of the 18 participants, who represented the six finalists, had every reason to be happy as they returned home with bags full of prizes.
At the contest’s end, the finalists were richer by such prizes as two-way return air tickets to India (courtesy Flydubai), laptops, iPhones and iPads.
The fact that how important are the roles acclaimed education and knowledge television channels such as National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery play in deciding one’s fortunes in an inter-school quiz contest was there for all to see in yesterday’s competition.
Earlier, while formally inaugurating the event, Indian ambassador Sanjiv Arora once again demonstrated his penchant for quizzing with a couple of interesting questions for the audience.
The envoy called on the children to be more familiar with the local history, traditions and above all modern developments to come closer to the Qatari society.
IWA president Ushas Andrews welcomed the gathering. Centrepoint chief operating officer (Qatar) Satheesh Pai and Qatar Steel strategic planning manager Natarajan Gopal felicitated the gathering. Qatar Steel were co-sponsors. Gulf Times was the official media.