The mood that greets the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) reaches its crescendo today as three schools – Adisadel College (ADISCO), West Africa Senior High School (WASS) and St. Peter’s Senior High School (PERSCO) battle for gold.
Even before the D-day, the schools have been highly optimistic as they fancied their chances of clinching the trophy.
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The National Theatre, which is the venue for the exercise, started gathering momentum yesterday as event organisers were feverishly putting finishing touches to preparations to host the event.
The Daily Graphic caught up with some contestants at the National Theatre to find out their expectation for the grand finale.
For Jeffery Quaye, a contestant for ADISCO, they are leaving no stone unturned in their last-minute preparations to annex the ultimate trophy.
He also indicated that they remained focused on winning the competition and hoped the almighty God would bestow His favour on them.
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Another contestant from PERSCO, Fenny Benjamin, said they were not under any pressure as nothing much had changed in their learning schedule.
He, however, anticipated a keen competition which they were prepared to face off.
The journey
While WASS and ADISCO began the journey of this year’s NSMQ among the top 27 seeded schools, PERSCO, who had won in 2000 and 2005, are chasing a third title in 12 years.
They started from the preliminary stage of this year’s competition by beating Notre Dame Girls’ SHS and St. Martin’s SHS.
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They also defeated Fijai SHS and Jachie Pramso SHS at the one-eighth stage of the contest.
Having made it to the quarter-final, PERSCO amassed 63 points to beat off competition from Wesley Girls and St. Thomas Aquinas SHSs, who managed 36 and 28 points respectively.
They sailed through the semi-finals by accumulating 35 points as against the Keta SHS and Mawuli School who got 26 and 22 points respectively.
WASS, who are still chasing their first-ever gold in the NSMQ, proved why they made it to the list of 27 seeded schools with an explosive win in the quarterfinals.
With 59 points they saw off Tamale SHS and Kumasi SHS who had 43 and 23 points respectively.
They then moved on to cause a major upset after bringing down Prempeh College, who were hoping for a back-to-back after annexing the ultimate trophy in 2017.
WASS sealed the grand finale berth by amassing 52 points, seven more than Prempeh College, and Krobo Girls SHS who settled for 29 points.
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ADISCO, which was among the 27 seeded schools for this year’s competition, sent a strong warning to other contenders for the trophy right from the quarterfinals with a bang against St Louis and Sandema SHSs, bagging 58 points as against 26 each for the latter pair.
It was a tight contest for them at the semi-finals after they left it late to beat arch-rivals Mfantsipim School and Ghana National with 48, 44, and 26 points respectively.
On paper, ADISCO looks more likely to walk home with the crown because of the final berth in the last four outings.
However, to have staged a comeback after 12 years, PERSCO will not like to let go of any opportunity while WASS equally lurks around to make history.
WASS
WASS is located in the La Nkwantang-Madina municipality (LANMA).
The school started in Tudu as the West Africa College of Commerce in 1946 and later to Accra New Town before it was absorbed into the public system In 1954.
