Four mathematic whizzes from Ashburton Intermediate School have taken out first place in the year 8 Aoraki Maths Competition, after an ‘‘incredibly tense’’ final round.
Thirteen-year-olds Sofia Polson, Bailee Giles, Desna Velusamy and 12-year-old Olivia Edkins comprised the school’s year 8 A team.
Year 8 teacher Jade Tonks said the team maintained the lead through the event, held at Timaru Boys’ High School.
The school had four teams entered in the year 8 competition, and two in the year 7 competition.
The final round became a battle between the year 8 A team and Gleniti School for first place.
The four girls each received a scientific calculator, The Warehouse gift card and a trophy.
‘‘It was an amazing night and we’re immensely proud and grateful to have had this opportunity,’’ they said in a written report to their class. The report reveals that alongside maths skills, the four students are good at descriptive writing.
‘‘The atmosphere inside the hall was extremely tense with all of the teams having a desire to win. Once the runners returned to their tables and the timer began, the feeling of excitement and anticipation filled the room as each team fought for first place.
‘‘Initially, the scoreboard was tight, but as time went on, the gap between each team slowly became further and further away.
‘‘We had to answer 20 questions in 30 minutes. The first team to do that would be the winner. ‘‘The last question was definitely the hardest and most time consuming. ‘‘When we were up to question 20, Gleniti were still two questions behind us, but they had ended up catching up to us. ‘‘It was incredibly tense, because the last question would decide who the winner would be.
‘‘We were extremely frustrated that this question was preventing us from winning. But we had a breakthrough and our faces lit up with joy as we saw our marker at the front table say our answer was correct.
‘‘We all jumped up and were ecstatic for the rest of the evening.’’
