HA NOI — A 17-year-old, who has just graduated from the Ha Noi-Amsterdam Elite High School, has won Viet Nam Television's national quiz show and with it a US$35,000 scholarship to study abroad. Phan Minh Duc beat three others in the final of the year-long Route to Olympia Peak gameshow which VTV3 broadcast live on Sunday.
The other contenders were Nguyen Huu Phuoc of Binh Phuoc Province's Quang Trung High School and Do Duc Hieu and Giang Thanh Tung of Thanh Hoa Province's Le Loi and Sam Son high schools.
The four had won their respective quarterly-level shows after starting in a weekly show.
In a breath-taking final, the four went neck-to-neck through the four sections – warm-up, hurdle-passing, speeding-up, and arriving – egged on by a big studio audience.
They took questions on a wide range of subjects in addition to mental ability – history, literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, culture, society, information technology, geography, and English.
The close race tested not only the contestants' knowledge but also their logical thinking, nerves, and strategies.
Phuoc led after the first section with 80 points, but Minh Duc overhauled him after the second, solving a crossword puzzle that fetched 40 points.
At the start of the final section, Hieu took the lead with 230 points.
But when Duc's turn came, he reclaimed the lead by scoring 40 points.
He also got Tung's question after the latter failed to answer the English question and gave the right answer to get another 50 points to finish ahead of the pack with 295.
Route to Olympia Peak, now in its 10th season, is the country's most coveted scholarship for high-school students.
The last nine winners went on to pursue their studies in Australia. — VNS