singapore tops biology olympiad - nie

Sherri Lee

The 23rd International Biology Ol-ympiad (IBO) ended on a high notefor Singapore yesterday, with its stu-dents coming up tops in the prestig-ious competition.

The Singapore team won fourgold medals, placing first in a fieldof 236 students from 59 economiesalong with the United States,which also scored four golds.

China, Taiwan and South Koreatied for second place, with threegolds and one silver, and Estoniaand Finland tied for third with twogolds and two silvers.

Raffles Institution (RI) studentNol Swaddiwudhipong finished asthe top scorer of the Olympiad.

It is the first time a Singaporeteam has taken the top spot, as wellas the first time the Republic haswon four gold medals in one year.Singapore was third last year.

Singapore was also hosting theevent for the first time. Over thelast week, promising pre-universitybiologists put their skills to the testin a series of challenging theoreti-cal and practical tasks at the Nation-al Institute of Education.

The competition was keen, espe-cially as the participants had allwon their own countries’ nationalbiology olympiads to be selectedfor the international contest.

The other members of the Singa-pore team were Zhang Hui Tingand Mao Haitong, also from RI,and Lim Yuan Wei from HwaChong Institution. They are all 18years old, and in JC 2.

The four were selected frommore than 300 students who tookpart in the Singapore Biology Olym-piad (SBO) last year.

Emotions ran high at the awardsceremony, as participants waited to

hear the results. “It was agonising,”groaned Nol, who waited over 11/2

hours to find out he had won.The others in the team placed

sixth, 11th and 23rd individually.The tests required teams to ap-

ply their thinking skills to originaldata from research papers.

Competition regulations disal-low more than two weeks of inten-sive preparation, so they had beenstudying hard since late June.

Nol said they were mentored byprofessors from the National Uni-versity of Singapore, Nanyang Tech-nological University and the Na-tional Institute of Education; SBOand IBO alumni, and their ownschoolteachers.

Even though the olympiad hasfinally come to a close, there will beno rest for the weary – the team’snext challenge will be the loomingpreliminary examinations and thedreaded A-levels.

At least for now, though, theteam will take a well-deservedbreak before hitting the booksagain. “We will just revel in the mo-ment first,” said Hui Ting. Haitonglaughed, adding: “I think it willsink in tomorrow... Because schoolstarts again next week!”

ljsherri@sph.com.sg

PHOTO:PATHLIGHT

SCHOOL

ActingMinister forCommunityDevelopment,Youth andSports ChanChun Singsigning a“VVIP Wall”at PathlightSchoolyesterday,with AutismResourceCentrepresidentDenise Phualooking on.

More than $480,000 has beenraised for autistic people in the sev-enth annual fund-raising drive ledby the Autism Resource Centre andPathlight School. The amount tar-geted was $300,000.

Mr Chan Chun Sing, Acting Min-ister for Community Development,Youth and Sports, and Senior Parlia-mentary Secretary (Community De-velopment, Youth and Sports, andForeign Affairs) Sam Tan werepresent at yesterday’s event, calledA Very Special Walk 2012.

It drew more than 800 partici-pants. Rain meant the planned

walk to Bishan Park was cancelled,and replaced with game stalls andperformances at autism-focusedPathlight School in Ang Mo Kio.

The money raised will fund thecentre’s Employability and Employ-ment Centre, which was launchedin March and aims to equip autisticyouth and adults with employableskills.

“People with autism and otherspecial needs want to be independ-ent, just like us,” said Moulmein-Ka-llang GRC MP Denise Phua, who isthe autism centre’s president.

Walter Sim

$480,000 for the autistic

ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM

Team members (from left) Zhang Hui Ting, Mao Haitong, Nol Swaddiwudhipong and Lim Yuan Wei with their medals. It is the first time a Singapore team hastaken the top spot, as well as the first time the Republic has won four gold medals in one year. Raffles Institution student Nol was also the Olympiad’s top scorer.

Singapore tops biology olympiadTeam wins four goldsto tie for No. 1 spotwith the US; RIstudent is top scorer

14 homethesundaytimes July 15, 2012