Azzan bin Qais, Al Ibdaa International win first Al Shabiba quiz contests

Muscat: Azzan bin Qais School and Al Ibdaa International School won the junior and senior rounds of the first ever Arabic inter-school quiz held by Al Shabiba, the Times of Oman’s sister Arabic publication.
Organised by Orbit Events and called the Shabiba Musabakat Bayn Madaris, the event was split into two categories – the junior and senior – and was hosted by Omani quizmaster Faiz Ibrahim Al Mamari at the Qurum Amphitheatre on Sunday evening.
He took over from ace quizmaster Giri ‘Pick Brain’ Balasubramaniam, who hosted both the senior and junior versions of the Times of Oman quiz, which was held at the same venue on Saturday evening. Indian School Al Ghubra captured a double and swept both the senior and junior titles on that day.
Azzan bin Qais, represented by Zain Al Abdeen and Al Faisal Al Hirari, finished first in the junior section, with Noori and Salim Issa from Al Ibdaa International School finishing second.
In the third place were Balqees Idris Al Hilali and Fajir Said Al Balushi from ABQ Seeb International School.
In the Arabic senior quiz, it was Al Ibdaa who won first place, represented by Adnan Al Luwaiti and Talal Zahir Mohammed Al Busaidi, with UPS Bausher’s Mazin Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi and Yousef Al Tamimi coming in second. Fatma Al Maimani and Hajir Al Khanjari were third, representing Tabarak Private School.
“The brand new quizmaster who won everyone over was Faiz Ibrahim Al Mamari,” said Ramesh Gopalan, the CEO of Orbit Events, the company that organised the quiz on behalf of Muscat Media Group, the parent publication of Times of Oman and Al Shabiba. “He is a champion public speaker, a coach and a trainer by profession, as well as an author of several books. I want to thank my entire team at Orbit. We worked really hard to make this a success.”