By the fifth day of the State Youth Festival, it seemed that Thiruvananthapuram had pretty much yielded before the juggernauts that are Kozhikode, Thrissur and Palakkad. As of points tallied on Friday evening, Thiruvananthapuram had a score of 586 (not counting Arabic and Sanskrit festivals), while defending champions Kozhikode led with 647.
Thrissur and Palakkad were neck and neck with 638 and 634 points respectively. The capital district was in the eighth place in the HS section and ninth in the HSS.
Among the district schools, it was the all-girls schools of Cotton Hill GHSS and Carmel EMGHSS, Vazhuthacaud, that were in the lead, having gained 60 and 55 points respectively. But that was still less than half of the top score of 175, earned by Durga HSS, Kanhangad, in Kasargod.
Only six other schools from the district had scored more than 20 points. They included Christ Nagar EHSS (30); Nirmala Bhavan Girls HSS (30); Holy Angels’ Convent (25); Darsana HSS Nedumangad (23); Al-Uthuman EMHSS, Kazhakkoottam (23); and New HSS, Nellimood (21).
It was Al Uthuman School’s fair performance in HS Arabic category that won it most of its points. Of the five items which contributed to the school’s score, four were in HS Arabic.
Of the 44 results announced on Friday till evening, 20 participants from Thiruvananthapuram had secured A grade, excluding 10 prize winners.
Some of the first place winners announced late on Thursday night and on Friday morning included Saikrishna C, Govt Model BHSS, Thycaud (Violin Eastern); Lekshmi Krishnan B of Christ Nagar EHSS for Veena / Vichithraveena; Priyanka S R of Govt Girls HSS, Cotton Hill, for Classical Music (Girls); and Sumayya Hussain of Cordova English Medium HSS, Ambalathara, for Poetry Writing - Hindi.