Third place for Macleans College at Japanese Trivia Championships
Posted on July 17, 2025
Two teams from Macleans College recently participated in the New Zealand Schools Japanese Trivia Championships, held at Epsom Girls Grammar School.
The competition featured five rounds of ten questions each. Categories included sports and festivals, food, daily life, pop culture and Japanese geography.
The team of James Appleton (Rutherford House), Amalya Ponna Handi (Te Kanawa), Charlie Pang (Mansfield) and Gajanan Shanmugathasan (Upham) delivered an impressive performance, earning third place. Three teams were tied at the end of the evening, prompting a tie-breaker question: What is the weight of the heaviest sumo wrestler, Mr Ōrora? Macleans College’s guess secured their final placing.
The second Macleans College team - Emily Wang (Upham), Maya Tian (Kupe), Isabella Xu (Batten) and Emma Jin (Batten) - added to the spirit of the evening with their creative cosplay and enthusiastic participation throughout the quiz.
Both teams enjoyed the event, which is the true focus of this annual competition, organised by the New Zealand Association of Japanese Language Teachers (NZAJLT).
