A team of three Indian-American students defeated teams from 17 other regions to win top honours at the 11th National Geographic World Championship in Russia's St. Petersburg city. The team included Captain Gopi Ramanathan, 15, from Sartell, Minnesota, Asha Jain, 13, from Minocqua, Wisconsin, and Neelam Kaur Sandhu, 14, from Bedford, New Hampshire.
In the biennial competition, teams of the students were asked questions on physical, cultural and economic geography. The Indian-American trio won by correctly identifying a country’s flag which had six small stars representing the mainland and its five offshore islands. The answer was Equatorial Guinea.
Ramanathan, already has won his state geography bee twice. He had finished seventh in the 2012 National Bee in Washington, DC. Students around the world earned the chance to be part of the World Championship competition by winning or being a top finisher in the national competitions of their home regions.
The 15 other teams competing were from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Britain. Indonesia and Mongolia participated for the first time this year.
The competition was sponsored by Google, and presented by the US National Geographic Society in partnership with the Russian Geographical Society.
The competition was sponsored by Google, and presented by the US National Geographic Society in partnership with the Russian Geographical Society.
Gopi Ramanathan is not an Indian American. He is a Sri Lankan American. His parents are from Jaffna, Sri Lanka
ReplyDelete