Dubai: What 'F' had the Gulf News Blockbusters audience at the edge of their seats? The finals.
Family, friends and classmates of the participants had gathered in force at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre (DUCTAC) on Saturday to cheer on their loved ones during the finals.
After facing a barrage of questions over six hours and keeping their cool despite the occasional bloopers and unanswered questions, 13 contestants walked away with the winners' prizes - courtesy of Toshiba.
The cheers from the audience at times gave the impression that one was watching a football match but the winners never let the pressure affect them.
This year's Blockbusters was truly a unique one with children as young as eight participating for the first time.
Naheed Patel, promotions manager at Gulf News, said that the Super Juniors heat was originally intended to be a one-round affair. "Do you think we are not clever?" was the children's retort when the schedule was presented to them.
"We then extended the heat to the best-of-two, and after speaking with the organisers from Toshiba to increase the number of prizes, we ended up with 32 children playing," she said.
The winner in the Super Juniors category was Aswin Narayanan, a nine-year-old pupil of JSS International School in Dubai. He was presented a 16GB iPod Nano.
"I am very happy and very pleased that I won. I would like to thank my mother and brother for helping me practice. My brother Naven is my inspiration because he also reached the finals," he said.
Naven Narayanan, 13, a pupil at Indian High School in Dubai, won the Juniors' Single category and described the feeling thus: "The final was very hard and I did not expect to win at all. It feels great that my brother and I both won, and we are both very happy. I practised a lot for the game and learnt many words from the dictionary," he said.
Naven was presented a Samsung Innov8 mobile phone.
Dubai Modern High School pupils Uttishta Varanasi and Dhruv Ramesh, both 13, were each awarded a Digital X60 Nikon Camera for winning the Juniors' Doubles category.
"To win this contest is an amazing feeling. I am happy that my family was all here to see me and my friend win, and am glad that we managed to beat our competitors because they were very good," said Varanasi.
Sameer Sajjadali, 16, a pupil at Our Own High School, Dubai, was presented a Toshiba A10-11M Notebook for winning the Seniors' Singles category.
"I was not expecting to come this far because this is the first time I participated. The cheers were very loud from my classmates, and I was able to focus on the questions by blocking out the noise," said Sajjadali.
Team 'Anonymous + 3', comprised of Aayush Rajasekaran, 15, Arun Asokan Nair, 16, Samrat Jayanth, 16, and Rahul Menon, 16, who all attend The Indian High School in Dubai, won the Seniors' Teams category and were each given a Samsung SGH-8510 mobile phone.
"Our practise really paid off. We would meet everyday in the library for five hours and practise, and we would also meet during the weekends in each others homes so that we would come to the final well-prepared," said Rajasekaran.
Sapan Mehta, 30, was delighted to have won the Adults Singles category and now boasts two Blockbusters' Singles titles since he won the juniors' title over 14 years ago.
"I thought that some of the other contestants were very good and I was worried that I might not win because I did not practise much. The final was harder than any other game and pretty intense," said Mehta, an IT consultant, who was presented a Toshiba cosmio G50 Notebook.
The Adults' Team category was won by 'No Strings' and was made up by Mehta and his friends Manu Mathews, 33, Gerald Eves, 33, and Anil Sali, 31. They were each given a Toshiba Portege m700 Notebook.
"The last game was tough and intense but we managed to fall through. It is all about being quick on the buzzer, but not too quick because then you miss out on the last part of the sentence and the whole meaning is changed," said Eves.
RESULTS
SUPER JUNIORS
Aswin Narayanan - Champion
Kehkashan Basu - 1st Runner up
Akshat Dhawan - Joint 2nd Runners up
Janvi Mistry - Joint 2nd Runners up
JUNIORS SINGLES
Naven Narayanan - Champion
Rishabh Saxena - 1st Runner up
Pranit Vengsarkar - Joint 2nd Runners up
Nikhita Joy - Joint 2nd Runners up
JUNIORS DOUBLES
Uttishta Varanasi - Champions
Ramesh Dhruv - Champions
Manas George - 1st Runner up
Manan Doshi - 1st Runner up
Roshan Krishnan - Joint 2nd Runners up
D Samvid - Joint 2nd Runners up
Rishabh Saxena - Joint 2nd Runners up
Rishabh Ramanath - Joint 2nd Runners up
SENIORS SINGLES
Sameer Sajjadali - Champions
Dibyo Majumdar - 1st Runner up
Ananya Jaidev - Joint 2nd Runners up
Arun Nair - Joint 2nd Runners up
SENIORS TEAMS
ANONYMOUS+3
Aayush Rajasekharan - Champions
Arun Nair - Champions
Rahul Menon - Champions
Samrat Jayanth - Champions
ENIGMA
Anirudh Sivaram - 1st Runner up
Anurag Baxi - 1st Runner up
Rohan Sampath - 1st Runner up
Vishwa Patel - 1st Runner up
BLOCKMASTERS
Dibyo Majumdar - Joint 2nd Runners up
Junaid Anvar - Joint 2nd Runners up
Manisha Krishnan - Joint 2nd Runners up
Siddharth Mahajan - Joint 2nd Runners up
THE COMETS
Amritha Memon - Joint 2nd Runners up
Chelsea Noronha - Joint 2nd Runners up
Janvi Palan - Joint 2nd Runners up
Tessa John - Joint 2nd Runners up
Sapan Mehta - Champion
Alok Mohan - 1st Runner up
Sheetal Bhagnari - Joint 2nd Runners up
Stanley D'cunha - Joint 2nd Runners up
NO STRINGS
Anil Sali - Champions
Gerald Eves - Champions
Manu Mathews - Champions
Sapan Mehta - Champions
ROLLIN STONES
Aldrin Nirmal - 1st Runner up
Haja Mohideen - 1st Runner up
Iordan Iordanov - 1st Runner up
Nanda Kumar - 1st Runner up
THE BETA BLOCKERS
Abdulrab Bin Daar - Joint 2nd Runners up
S Krishnan - Joint 2nd Runners up
Sumitha Nayak - Joint 2nd Runners up
Veena Shenoy - Joint 2nd Runners up
ANGELS AND DEMONS
Madhusudan Mathilakath - Joint 2nd Runners up
Maheshkumar Mathilakath - Joint 2nd Runners up
Sheela Mahesh - Joint 2nd Runners up
Vasant K C - Joint 2nd Runners up
ANONYMOUS+3
Aayush Rajasekharan - Runners Up
Arun Nair - Runners Up
Rahul Menon - Runners Up
Samrat Jayanth - Runners Up
QUIZMASTERS
Christine Stewart - Winners
Sheena Kay - Winners
Stuart McClean - Winners
Surina Kelly - Winners
