- Genadii, you are only 14. Did youexpect to come out first?

- No. I never hoped for that, but I am happy.This is my best performance so far

- This is your fourth international com-petition. What have your achievements beenso far?

- When I entered my first Olympiad I wasonly eleven. I then got a silver medal. Since thenI have always got Gold ones.

- How did you come to be a member ofthe Belarus team?

- I started learning informatics when I waseight. Initially my parents, who are computer pro-grammers teaching at the University in Gomel,helped me. We don’t have specialized informaticsclasses, so I entered form a t h e m a t i c s .Nevertheless I startedparticipating in nationalcompetitions. Thosewho rank in the top tengo to training camps.They are organizedtwice a year and the fourwith the highest scoresgo to the WorldOlympiad. That is how Iended up in the team.

- You alreadyhave rich experience.Did you find thisyear’s tasks difficult?

- The tasks wereas difficult as in the pre-vious Olympiads. I hadthe hardest time solvingthe one with the arrowsand the target. A pro-gram had to be made to

find the best position of the archer in order to fin-ish at the target with the lowest number. Thisproblem was the only one I was not able to finish,scoring only 43 points.

- Have you developed your own strate-gy of problem-solving?

- I try various ways, and one of them is theright one. I am no genius. I am simply good at it.

- Do you have a good luck charm, aswe have seen many of the competitors do?

- No. Actually, when we arrived our guide,Mihaela, made for me and my team-matesbracelets with wooden beads. Maybe theybrought me good luck.

- How many hours a day are you infront of the computer?

- Not more than three to four. I like playingfootball and table tennis, so I try to find time forsports as well.

- Have any technological universitiesor softwarecompanies approached you yet?

- Not yet. I am still at school. I have yet tobe in the 9th grade, so it’s too early. I haven’t evendecided what exactly I want to do yet.

Gold Medalists3

Genadii Karatzkevitch, the GoldMedalist winner with the highest score,

awarded with the John Atanassov statuette:

I am no genius, I amsimply good at it

***26 Gold Medals were awarded

at the Twenty-first InternationalOlympiad in Informatics in Plovdiv.Three each went to China and Korea.Two each were awarded to the boysof Taipe, the USA, Japan, Belarus,Poland, and Romania. One goldmedal each went to the Netherlands,Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Tailand,Croatia, Canada, and Iran.

***Fifty-two contestants received

silver medals, seventy-five - bronze.The full 800 points were not collectedbe any contestant, The highest num-ber of points, however, 743, weremade by the champion, GenadiiKaratskevitch. Task number 4 on thefirst day was the most difficult formost.

***800 points were scored by a

participant from China participating inthe parallel 24-hour on-line program.The achievement deserves admira-tion, though noone knows the age ofthe participant, or the additionalsources and materials used.

***The Bulgarian team participat-

ing in the official ranking got two sil-ver and two bronze medals. Thersiver went to Rumen Hristov andMomchil Tomov, the bronze - toAnton Atanasov and Ivan Georgiev.There are also medallists in the host-country’s second team: silver forStefan Avramov and bronze for MihailKovachev. Yassen Trifonov fromPlovdiv brought a medal for the hosttown team.

The Medals