ESHOWE High Grade 10 pupil, Warren Hood was not afraid of the stiff competition in the Standard Bank Programming Olympiad, which was recently held in Cape Town.
Although he was not among the medals, Warren was a runner-up in the competition.
The three-day event showed that experience does count as four of the six medal winners have previously competed in the Olympiad finals.
Olympiad Manager Michael Cameron said, ‘There was a vigorous exchange of coding strategies as the 17 finalists walked down to the local steakhouse for supper after five-hours of sitting focused at their computers.
They valued ‘meeting like-minded people for a weekend’ in what one described as ‘by far the toughest thing I’ve ever done, but certainly well worth the experience’.
The gold medal and the coveted Standard Bank Trophy were won by Bronson Rudner in Grade 12 at the South African College School (SACS).
He also won R11 000 for himself and R5 000 for his school.
He was a South African Programming Olympiad finalist in 2014, and won a silver medal at last year’s 2015 finals.
Silver medal winner, Yaseen Mowzer in Grade 12 at Fairbairn College is also an Olympiad veteran, having taken part in his first programming finals when he was still in Grade 9.
The other silver medal went to David Broodryk, a Grade 12 pupil at Westerford High School.
Bronze medals went to veterans Ralph McDougall in Grade 10 at Curro Durbanville, and repeat bronze winner Sanjiv Ranchod in Grade 12 at Westerford High School.
A newcomer to the finals was bronze medal winner Taariq Mowzer.
He is in Grade 9 at Fairbairn College, but is already making a mark by winning a medal while only in Grade 9; a feat only equalled this century by his older brother Yaseen in 2013.
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