|
|
|
|
|
|
Latest News |
| 26th
July 2010 / Times of India / Mumbai Edition |
|
Mumbai girl wins gold at Int’l Physics Olympiad
Mumbai: Aakanksha Sarda, an 18-year-old girl from the
city, set a precedent recently when she won a gold medal
at the International Physics O ly m p i a d held in Croatia.
She is the first Indian girl to achieve this feat. Moreover,
Aakanksha also stood first among the girls at the olympiad.
Five students each from 82 countries took part in this
olympiad and overall, India stood sixth.
“The first girl to represent olympiad in 2006 had
managed to bag a bronze. Aakanksha has become the first
Indian girl to win the gold medal,’’ said
Vijay Singh, national co-ordinator of science olympiads.
He added that Aakanksha stood 12th among the 376 students
who had taken part at the olympiad. The other members
of the team won three silver medals and one bronze medal.
Aakanksha’s ecstatic family in the city is now waiting
for the team’s arrival on Tuesday morning. “It
is amazing that she has reached this far considering that
she once hated Physics in school. However, she loved Mathematics,
and grew interested in the subject again. Soon, she was
one of the five students representing India at this prestigious
event,’’ said Zarana Sarda, Aakanksha’s
mother.
“She has made the nation proud. I am happy to know
that a girl has proved herself, as this is a field usually
dominated by boys. She topped at the national level, too,’’
said Praveen Tyagi, managing director of IITians PACE,
the classes where Aakanksha was groomed for the olympiad.
Aakanksha, who also applied for IIT, had stood 18th in
the country and would have easily got a seat at any IIT.
But, she will now head to the US to pursue a degree at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“These students were chosen from 40,000 applicants
who had appeared for the first round of examinations.
After series of tests and training programmes, five were
selected to represent the country at this event,’’
added Singh.
|
|
|
|
