Romania's Alexandru Luchianov flawless at Junior Olympiad in Informatics
Maribor, 28 August - Alexandru Luchianov from Romania proved to be the best among 90 primary school children from 24 countries who participated in the 3rd European Junior Olympiad in Informatics (EJOI) which ended in Maribor on Wednesday. Luchianov solved all the challenges for a perfect score of 600 points.
Seven more young programmers excelled and were honoured with gold medals at the event, which started last Saturday. They are Aleksandr Abelyan from Armenia, Jan Strzeszynski from Poland, Danil Klishch and Bulat Kharisov from Russia, Artem Fomiuk from Ukraine, and two more Romanian pupils - Alexandru-Raul Todoran and Luca Perju-Verzotti.
The medallists were honoured at the closing ceremony at Maribor's Druga gimnazija secondary school by Education, Science and Sport Minister Jernej Pikalo and by the president of he Slovenian Union for Technical Culture Radovan Stanislav Pejovnik.
The performance of Slovenian participants did not quite suffice for a medal. One of them, Filip Štamcar, said the challenges had been very demanding and what is more, the Slovenian teams did not prepare as hard for the event as some of the other teams.
The participants also used their time in Slovenia to get to know the country. Luchianov, who also won a gold medal at last-year Olympiad in Russia, for instance singled out the visit to the Škocjanske jame caves.
The third European Junior Olympiad in Informatics - the first was held in Bulgaria two years ago - was organised by the Slovenian Union for Technical Culture in cooperation with the Education Ministry.
The organiser of the next EJOMI, modelled on the international Olympiad in Informatics which dates back 30 years but is intended for secondary school students, remains to be determined.