Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s biggest quizzing extravaganza, 6th Orissa POST Mettle Meet-2024, got off to a spectacular start amid an overwhelming participation of students representing 82 premier educational institutions, in Junior and Senior categories, of the state Saturday. Hotel Crystal Crown of the City was the new venue this year for the event.
A total of 16 teams from Odisha’s top educational institutions won the tough preliminary round battle and qualified for the finals to be held Sunday. The top eight teams each in Junior and Senior categories will sweat it out to bag the prestigious trophy and cash prize of Rs 1lakh.
Earlier, welcoming the participants, Orissa POST Chief Executive Adyasha Satpathy said, “We started Mettle Meet with an objective to offer a suitable platform to quizzing and quizzers from schools and colleges of the state. In quizzing you always learn something and can also enjoy and that was our motto. We started off with just 16 teams and the event is getting only bigger with each passing year.”
In a significant development, Satpathy announced that Mettle Meet 2025 will be upgraded from a state-level to a national-level event.
“As Mettle Meet is growing, we hope to make it national next year with brains from other states participating in it,” she said.
Editor, Orissa POST Tathagatha Satpathy in his welcome speech said, “We are happy to host another edition of Orissa POST Mettle Meet. We are excited that like every year this year too all top educational institutions of the state are participating and the numbers are higher than the previous years. I hope Mettle Meet offers varied and rich experience to the participants and also test their wits.”
He went on to add, “Quizzing is not just about general knowledge, it is beyond that. It mentally challenges the best of brains.”
The venue was abuzz with activities since the early morning hours as batches of participants started arriving in from all parts of the state.
The preliminary round for Junior category was based on 35 questions with no negative marks and eight teams – KIIT International School, Mother Public School, Loyola School, DAV CDA, SAI International School, DAV Public School Kalinga Nagar, DPS Kalinga and DAV Unit 8 – qualified for the Grand Finale.
In Senior category, the colleges that made it to the last eight were NIT Rourkela, SCB Medical College and Hospital, KIIT University, IIT Bhubaneswar, NISER Bhubaneswar, VIMSAR Burla, National Law University of Odisha, Cuttack and AIIMS Bhubaneswar.
Quiz master Ajay Poonia had set several brain-twisters in the preliminary round to test the nerve and wit of budding talents.
Sharing his views on the outcome of the first day, Poonia said, “Seeing the preliminary performance I must say the motto of reviving the quiz culture by Orissa POST is successful. The competition was nail- biting and the margin of loss and win was very less. I am sure the finals will be tougher than the prelims.”
The questions posed at the Mettle Meet preliminary round ranged from diverse subjects relating to politics, sports, culture, international affairs, health and other issues including the ongoing Paris Olympics. Use of audio-visual questions by the quiz wizard made the competition more interesting.
Prathmesh Gourav of SAI international School, one of the participants in Junior category, said, “The prelims questions were very tough and the quiz master Ajay Poonia’s way of posing them was very tricky. We were confident of being selected for the finals as we were the finalist last year too. We were very alert and most of the questions had clues for the answers which we took advantage of.”
PNN