Mangaluru: Little Rock Indian School, Brahmavar, represented by Prabhav Shetty and Druhan Shah, won the Mangaluru edition of the Presidency Challenge Cup inter-school quiz competition while Roy Vince Saldanha from St. Theresa School, Mangaluru, conquered the spelling bee competition here on Thursday.

The event was organised by the Presidency School in association with The Hindu.

Dhiren B. and Chandan Prakash from Vidyodaya Public School, Udupi, came second in quiz while Cloyce Savio Saldanha from The Yenepoya School, Mangaluru, was the runner-up in spelling bee.

Six teams of two each were chosen for the quiz final through a preliminary round of 304 students from six districts in the region.

Others finalists included, Kenneth and Acquin Pinto, St. Theresa School; Gagan and Leropy, Presidency School; Aryan and Bhargav, Sharada Vidyalaya; and Nihar and Mayur, Canara High School, all in Mangaluru. Quiz master Giri Balasubramaniam conducted the event.

Vidyodaya team took a good lead in the first round by answering, among others, a question on the origin of word ‘Pandora’s box’. It was also the first to identify pictures of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and reigning U.S. Open champion in women’s singles Naomi Osaka displayed on the screen. It had 35 points by the end of two rounds.

Starting with 20 points from third round, Little Rock team went on to gain points in subsequent rounds. Among the questions it answered correctly were the one related to mortar board — the square academic cap worn during graduation ceremony.

At the end, the team secured 65 points while Vidyodaya team got 45 points.

Six students were chosen for the final round of spelling bee from 189 in the preliminary round. Other finalists included Sanath Shet, Cambridge School; Anvitha K. Uchila, Manipal School; Nidheesh S. Kumar, St. Aloysius Higher Primary School; and Pavithra K. Vinayan from Sharada Vidyalaya, all in Mangaluru. Roy topped the preliminary round too by getting all 20 words correct.

Rashmi Furtado conducted the spelling bee. In the final round, Roy had an edge over other participants by getting 60 points in the first round. He went on to gain 30 more points by the end of third round. He was at 90 points in the final while Cloyce and Pavithra were tied at 20 points each. Cloyce was declared runner-up after correctly identifying zucchini and giving its correct spelling.

Pro Vice Chancellor of Nitte Deemed to be University M.S. Moodithaya and former Director (Academic) of Central Board Secondary Education G. Balasubramanian gave away prizes.

G. Tangadurai, Director of Presidency Group of Schools, was also present. Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil inaugurated the event. V4 News channel was the telecast partner for the event.