Gold for geography

A young student proves his mettle by carrying away the highest award in an international competition, writes FARZANA

Tarang Immidi did Australia proud by nabbing the gold medal in the 3rd Asia Pacific Regional Geography Olympiad recently. The 17-year-old Sydney Grammar School student was one of four youngsters chosen to represent Australia in the event which took place in Merida, Mexico from 4-9 July. Apart from Australia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and Mexico were the other countries that participated.

This was the first time Tarang took part in this competition that was based on individual performance and comprised of four tests held on different days.

The International Geography Olympiad (iGeo) is organised by the International Geographical Union (IGU) Olympiad Task Force, and until now was held bi-annually. However this year marked the last of the Regional Olympiad, as from next year the International Olympiad will be held every year.

Thousands of students partake in these competitions each year, and the best are selected to compete on an international level. The competition aims at promoting geography, raising awareness and understanding amongst young people and stimulating a higher quality of schoolwork in geography worldwide. The participants aged 16-19 are tested for their skills via exercises in written, multimedia and field work.

In response to my question on how

SHAKIR

Australia performed overall and his individual performance in the finals, Tarang said, “The Australian team won 1 gold medal as well as 2 silvers and a bronze. This strong performance placed us as the top team in the competition by a considerable margin. There were no finals as such, but I won one of two gold medals, coming second in the competition as a whole. The first place was won by a member of the Mexican team.”

He further confided that the competition was “quite challenging and the questions were certainly not easy.”

So what was Tarang’s game plan and how did he prepare for the Olympiad on a topic so varied and vast (literally)? “There was not much I could do to prepare for the Olympiad as it tests one’s ability to analyse geographical information, rather than geographical knowledge. My preparation consisted of looking at tests from past Olympiads,” replied Tarang. Was this young man confident of his performance prior to the competition, and did he think he had a chance of winning gold?

”I think to be selected to compete in the competition was in itself an achievement, but I did not expect that I would do so well,” Tarang answered modestly. “I was very happy to have won the gold. It certainly was the highlight of the trip. My family,