Harsh and Aakash with Derek O’Brien. Telegraph picture

Jamshedpur, Sept. 21: There seems to be no stopping the Loyoleans.

Barely had the school got over with the celebration of its students winning an international computer fest last month, two students of the school have gone on to become international champions in the prestigious Bournvita Quiz Contest (BQC) held in Calcutta last week.

The duo of Harsh Sarma and Aakash Ghosh from the city schools emerged winners in the first-of-its-kind contest at BQC, where students had to battle it out with teachers instead of fellow students from other cities. “This time BQC was different and nail-biting as we had to compete against a teachers’ team from another school,” said Aakash, a Class VIII student. Loyola was the only team to have made it to BQC from the steel city.

The Loyola team had, however, also won the other preceding rounds before they moved on to the international finals which had teams from Muscat, Bahrain and UAE also participating apart from about 20 Indian schools.

“Instead of prize money, the winning teams were given paid holiday trips to different locations across India,” said Aakash.

His teammate Harsh, who is out of India right now, however, could not be contacted.

Once at the studios in Calcutta, the Loyola team defeated one team after the other almost with a monotonous regularity.

Not only did they win both the trips within India, they also won themselves the grand prize of a trip to Dubai.

But the real surprise came in when quizmaster Derek O’Brien suddenly changed his mind and decided to carry on the quiz with a prize of a trip for two to Singapore.

“It was indeed surprising for the students when they were asked to battle it out against the teachers’ team from Dhirubhai Ambani International School, (DAIS) Mumbai, even after the final round,” said B. Damodiwalla, the teacher who accompanied the students to Calcutta. And as expected, the Loyoleans not only emerged winners once again, but also defeated the DAIS team with an enormous margin of over 700 points.

The quiz contest would be telecast on POGO in December and January.