"This competition will lead you to meet with people you have never met before. Such meetings will foster friendship ties among you that will last even longer than medals," he told the iGeo contestants as cited in a statement received in Jakarta on Thursday.
According to Makarim, the most valuable aspects in participating in a competition are related to the manner in which individuals position themselves, take risks, and compete optimally.
A total of 177 senior high school students from 46 countries are partaking in the 2023 iGeo, currently taking place in Bandung, West Java, on August 8-14.
Several participants shared their stories regarding the preparations they made for competing at the 2023 iGeo, including Fiona Zhang, a participant from Surabaya, East Java, who reminisced about stages she had to go through in order to be able to compete in the prestigious competition.
"Before managing to qualify for this competition, I had to compete in a national-level science competition and participate in four levels of national training," she noted.
In addition to Zhang, the Indonesian delegation is represented by three other students from the provinces of Lampung and West Java at the 2023 iGeo.
Meanwhile, Fatma, a Tunisian student, said she and her team underwent an intensive one-week training period by answering questions, reading articles, and studying scientific journals.
Similar statements were also made by student from Nigeria Maryam Sophiyah Aliyu and British student Dion Eric Earl Thompson, saying that they received intensive coaching.
Aliyu said she and her team were intensively studying volcanoes, rivers, oceans, and human geography, while Thompson stated that over the past few weeks, the British delegation had been writing essays on geology in the Caribbean region and the organisms living there.
"We also discussed the iGeo participants and studied the questions and cases issued at the competition's previous editions," Thompson said.
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Translator: Astrid F.H., Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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