Yorkshire’s becoming somewhat of a hub for gold medallists and the county’s latest double delight came away from the athletics field as Leeds’ biology masterminds took over.
Eight students from the Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) claimed success in round one of this year’s Biology Olympiad, with two students picking up prestigious gold medals.
The competition was designed to recognise A-level students for their knowledge beyond the curriculum and inspire them to extend their study of the subject.
Six students from GSAL were commended with accolades such as medals and certificates, yet it was only Anam Malik and Ranji Venkateswaran who came away with the top gold.
Ranji achieved a record high score for GSAL of 58 points, enough to qualify her to compete for a place on the team to represent the UK at the International Biology Olympiad.
“I was really surprised to get a medal and excited at the possibility of making the national team,” she said. “It’s been good to push ourselves using the extra reading we have done for university interviews and to measure our performance against students from other schools.”
Silver medals went to Yasmin Khan, Trina Seal and Yash Singh, bronze to Jacob Fingret and certificates of commendation to Bradley Metcalfe and Ellen White.
The Biology Olympiad is run by UK Biology Competitions, a Special Interest Group of the Society of Biology.
