RI students grab silvers, bronze medals

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian students grabbed two silvers and one bronze in the 16th Olympiad in Informatics that ended on Saturday in Athens, Greece.

The event, which ran from Sept. 11 to Sept. 18, was attended by 300 students from 80 countries.

The silvers went to David Santoso Anggakusuma of Tarakanita 2 private senior high school in Jakarta and Derianto Kusuma of Kanisius private senior high school, also in Jakarta.

The sole bronze was won by Andrian Kurniady of Sang Timur senior high school in Jakarta.

Another Indonesian team member, Roberto Eliantoro Adiseputra of Kolese St. Joseph senior high school in Malang, East Java, was awarded an honorable citation in the event.

Paul Jeffreys of Great Britain topped the standings, scoring 565 out of a possible 600. Chinese students finished second and third on 560 and 530 respectively.

David scored 375, Derianto got 365 and Andrian collected 345 points.

Indonesian team leader Fauzan Joko Sularto said Eliantoro fell sick on the second day of the eight-day competition, but held on to finish among the promising participants.

"I'm glad with their performance. They would have won three gold medals if the organizers had not increased the standards of the competition," Fauzan said.

He said the medal collection was the best an Indonesian delegation had ever achieved in the competition.

"It proved that Indonesian students have managed to keep up with their peers from other countries in informatics technology," Fauzan said.

He regretted, however, the fact that most education institutions in the country remained unaware of the development of informatics technology.

The Indonesian team is expected to arrive home on Monday at around 6 p.m.

It will be business as usual for Fauzan upon arrival as he will prepare for the selection of Indonesian students who will don the national colors at the 17th Olympiad in Poland next year.