MALAYSIA — Around 75 students from different national and international schools in Saudi Arabia took part in different levels of the International Abacus Championship held on Dec. 9 at the International Islamic University campus here. Performing outstandingly at the competition, students from Saudi Arabia overall secured the third position in the world UC MAS world abacus and mental arithmetic international championship after competing with some 5,000 children hailing from 35 other countries. Aged between 6 and 13, the students were trained extensively for four months by UC MAS Abacus, a program which helps children calculate fast and accurately with abacus. Most of the students from different categories were able to solve 150 - 200 sums within eight minutes. The children felt very happy and overwhelmed to have represented Saudi Arabia and prove their mental arithmetic capabilities at such a young age. The winners of the championship from different categories are as follows – In the basic category (under 7 years), Saudi nationals Leen Al Ghamdi and Sedra Yamani bagged the second and third position respectively. In the basic category (above 7 years), Indian national Parikshit Boyar was the world champion at his level. Saudi national Faisal Adel Al Qatani and Indian national Adrish Kar came in second, Pakistani national Mohammed Talha, Indian national Huefa Iqbal, and Sri Lankan national Wenuja Kuruppu clinched the third spot. Saudi nationals Rana Faisal Al Khudaiyri and Maha Ibrahim Al Balawi came fourth whereas Abeer Al Harithy and Farah Haitham Shammari stood at the fifth spot. At the elementary level, Saudi nationals Raghad Mohammed Badawai was the world champion in his category whereas Al Hanouf Abdullah Al Atawi was the runner-up. Securing the second position were Saudi nationals Ibrahim Yasser Zamkah, Faisal Adel Qatani, and Kenan Zuhdi Nagshabandi. Saudi national Fawaz Tariq Al Gabban and Indian national Mariyam Safi Haider were placed third, and Rahaf Ahmed Harity, Raghad Hassan Al Ahmadi, Sarah Mohammed Al Marwani, all Saudi nationals, bagged the fourth position. At the fifth spot were Saudi nationals Rajin Khalaf Al Fadili and Nouf Mohammed Al Balawi. Saudi national Yusuf Mubarak Al Harbi and Indian national Arshad Khan claimed the third positions in the intermediate level and the intermediate higher level respectively. In the higher levels, Indians dominated with Anirudh Srinivas and Aadit Jeyeshanker securing the second position with Shah Mohammed and Rohan Manuel Korian coming in third. Prateek Rai was declared the world champion in the advanced level, Deepak stepped in second and Umme Munn Hussain third. In the advanced plus level, Arpan Vihan came in second and Sandeep Narayan was the runner-up. — SG
