Six Indian students, four of them from Pune, are on their way home with a rich cache of medals from the International Astronomy Olympiad in Italy, winning between them a gold, four silver and a bronze medals.

Abhishek Oswal of St Mary’s School, Sarthak Chandra of Bishop’s School and Jayant Thatte of SP College each won a silver at the Olympiad held between October 13 and 20. Anirudh Bapat of Army Public School won the bronze. Of the two students from other cities, Shantanu Agarwal of Patna bagged the lone gold while Nitish Kumar Singh of Mumbai took another silver.

The students’ proud parents reached Mumbai international airport on Wednesday to welcome them home. “It was Sarthak’s first trip abroad. We have been in touch and it has been a wonderful experience for him, as the competition was nothing like the usual exams in India,” said Vandana Chandra.

For Anirudh Bapat, this was a second innings, having already won gold at the previous 2007 Olympiad held in Simeiz, Crimea. He participated in the senior category this time. “Anirudh particularly enjoyed the theory round. He is a little disappointed that he got only a bronze, but it is an achievement nevertheless,” said his mother Swatee Bapat.

The National Astronomy Olympiad first screened the top six students from aspirants from all over India, and then sent them to Triste, Italy, for the Astronomy Olympiad. This was one of the six international science Olympiads held annually. Teams from 18 countries participated in the event. at Trieste Observatory of International Centre for Theoretical Physics.

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