Young Olympians bring back medals from Germany

August 3, 2004

Young Olympians bring back medals from Germany

New Zealand is already winning medals at the Olympics and the winners have come home. Four students who competed at the 2004 International Chemistry Olympiad in Kiel, Germany in July have returned home with silver and bronze medals.

Reed Roberts from Wellington brought home a silver medal, while an Auckland trio of Yun Huang from Westlake Boys High School, and Tony Chiu and Aritra Ray from Mt Roskill Grammar School, brought back bronze medals.

The kiwi students competed against teams from 62 other countries and have produced one of the best results that New Zealand has had since teams began competing at the Chemistry Olympiad in 1992.

"The level of students in our team was outstanding and they performed well against stiff competition. Each year you can see the standard of the competition going higher and we are delighted with the students' performance," says Dr Sheila Woodgate.

Dr Woodgate is from the Department of Chemistry, at The University of Auckland, and offers coaching and support leading up to the event.

Theoretical and practical questions posed from almost all sectors of chemistry, were solved individually by the students. They also had an opportunity to get to know Germany from a scenic and cultural perspective in addition to it being a location for fostering chemistry in research, teaching, industry and technology.

ENDS

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