Telugu boy of US wins National Geographic Bee contest

Hyderabad: Akhil Rekulapelli, 13, a student of Telugu-origin in Virginia, US, won a prestigious na­tional quiz contest conducted by National Geographic Channel on Thursday. Akhil received a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos Islands with his family and a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society.The annual event – titled as National Geographic Bee -- held at the channel’s Washington DC headquarters peppers students with questions about mountain peaks and obscure national borders, one at a time until only one remains.

Akhil outlasted nine other finalists and answered all three questions correctly in a one-on-one showdown with his youngest rival, 11-year-old Ameya Mujumdar, of Tampa, Florida.

The decisive question: What African country is building a new capital called Oyala in the rain forest, 65 miles east of Bata? The answer: Equatorial Guinea.

Akhil’s father Prasad, a pediatrician, was an alumnus of Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal.

Prasad Rekulapelli said his son showed an early affinity for maps — he was able to put together a puzzle of the United States at 18 months old. But after he fell short at the Virginia state bee as a sixth-grader, his parents sought out the services of a coach, Kumar Nandur, who has offered free tutoring to numerous bee contestants, including the 2010 champion.

Ameya, the runner-up, wowed the crowd on a tiebreaker question when he was able to recall the Earth's precise diameter at the equator — 7,926 miles. He gets a $25,000 scholarship. Tuvya Bergson-Michelson, of Hillsborough, California, was third and receives a $10,000 scholarship, and Pranit Nanda, of Aurora, Colorado, was fourth and wins $1,000 in cash

Akhil’s ambition was to become a surgeon in future. "I probably want to be the head of a department at a hospital, try to graduate at the top of my class, but I think, right now, this is probably the biggest accomplishment I'll ever achieve in probably 20, 30 years," said Akhil, an eighth-grader from Sterling, Virginia. "It'll be a while." Akhil finished fourth in last year's bee — a lucky result, since the top three finishers are ineligible to return. This year, he was determined to bring home the prize.

"Definitely felt a lot of pressure," he said. "I've done something I've been wanting to do my whole entire life, and I'm so happy it's actually come to reality now."

Rekulapelli bested more than four million students, who originally competed in school-level bees across the U.S.

Mountains of Questions

The Geographic Bee works much like a spelling bee. This year's host, Soledad O'Brien, asked each student his or her own question. Every few rounds, several students were asked to leave the stage. The departures often come with visible heartbreak and emotion, the mountains of expectations from parents and teachers mixed with the disappointment of falling short.

Never mind that most people couldn't answer the type of obscure questions the Bee is known for.

International Competition

The geography contest was created in 1989 in response to concern about a lack of geographic knowledge among American young people. Four years later, National Geographic created the World Geographic Bee to foster international competition. The ten finalists this year and next year will vie for spots on a three-person team that will represent the United States next year in Stockholm.

Last year's winner was also an Indian-origin boy, a Massachusetts 12-year-old named Sathwik Karnik. He won by knowing the tallest mountain peak on Earth, when the Earth's bulge at the Equator is taken into consideration. Answer: Chimborazo.