RI dominates Science Olympiad
Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia came out the winner of the country's first International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) with eight gold medals on Monday and grabbed the Overall Winner's Trophy.
The eight gold medalists are Stephanie Senna of private IPEKA Christian Junior High School in West Jakarta, and Diptarama of public SLTPN 252 School in Jakarta, Aziz Adi Suyono of SLTPN 9 Cilacap, Central Java; Achmad Furqon of SLTP Bina Insan in Bogor, West Java; Andika Afriansyah of SLTP Nusantara, Makassar, South Sulawesi; Wayan Wicak Ananduta of SLTPN I, Bekasi, West Java; Ria Ayu Pramudita of MTSN Malang, East Java and William of SLTP Sutomo I, Medan, North Sumatra.
Stephanie was also declared the Best Experimental Winner and Diptarana, Absolute Winner.
Coming in second was Chinese Taipei with five gold medals from Ying-Yu Ho, Frank Lin, Szu-Po Wang, Pi-Hsun Shih, and Hui-Ju Chiang, who was also declared Best Theoretical Winner.
Indonesia sent two teams of 12 students to the competition, which was participated in by 181 students from 30 countries, including Germany, Iran, Ireland, the Philippines, Russia and South Korea. Other countries were allowed to send one team of six students only. It ran from Dec. 4 to Dec. 14.
Organizers, however, admitted that the win came as no surprise as the two teams had 10 months' preparation, while some countries had little time to prepare their students.
"We informed other countries about the competition in February, however some teams were established in November. They may not have had enough time to prepare (for the competition)," IJSO organizing committee chairman Masno Ginting told The Jakarta Post last Thursday.
Kingsley N. Imade and Eckhard Lucius, team leaders from Nigeria and Germany respectively, told the Post that they only had a very short time to prepare for the olympiad.
Imade said they could only commence study for the event in mid-November and had arranged other things, such as participants' visas, after that. Nigeria sent only five students.
Lucius said his students started to prepare for the olympiad in early October. "We would have to have been very lucky to win this time," he said.
Germany won five silver medals and a bronze.
Tests were prepared by a joint team of Indonesian university lecturers from the University of Indonesia (UI), Institute of Technology Bandung, University of Airlangga and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
The event took place at Dunia Fantasi Amusement Park, North Jakarta, with admission tickets priced at Rp 50,000 each.