Gopi Ramanathan was not among the top three winners of the National Geography Bee May 24 in Washington, D.C.
The Sartell eighth-grader was named one of the 10 finalists May 22 after competing with 53 other students in grades 4-8. Those state winners were the tops of the more than 4 million students who competed in geography bees throughout the nation.
As of Thursday, the Newsleaders has not been able to contact Ramanthan for his reactions, although the newspaper plans to do a feature about his experience for the June 8 edition. Ramanthan took the trip to Washington, D.C. with his parents, his brother and his Sartell Middle School advisor.
The winner of Thursday’s competition is Rahul Nagvekar, a 14-year-old from Missouri City, Texas. His winning answer was “Regensburg,” which was the Bavarian city on the Danube River that served as the legislative seat of the Holy Roman Empire from 1663-1806.
Nagvekar won $25,000, a trip to the Galapagos Islands west of Ecuador in the Pacfic Ocean. The winner also has the chance to compete in the International Geography Bee in 2013 in Russia.
Last year’s winner was also a Texas boy – Tine Valencic, 13, of Colleyville Middle School.
The second-place winner is Vansh Jain of Minocqua, Wis.; and the third-place winner is Varun Mahadevan of Fremont, Calif.
The 23rd annual National Geography Bee was hosted again by Alex Trebec of Jeopardy. A delayed broadcast of the contest was be shown tonight (May 24), 7 p.m. central time, on the National Geographic Channel.