Two pupils from Guizhou province took the elementary school championship at the International Robot Olympiad-China's robot soccer game finals, recently held in Tai'an, Shandong province, which had as many as 40 teams from across China participating.

Song Haoyang (2nd L) and Zheng Bofu (3rd L) from Guizhou province are elementary school champions at the International Robot Olympiad-China finals in Tai'an, Shandong province recently.[Photo/gywb.cn]

Beating out all the other competitors were 10-year-old Song Haoyang, from the city of Guiyang's Experimental Primary School, and 12-year-old Zheng Bofu, from the same city's Jiaxiu Primary School, both of whom will go on to compete at the robot Olympiad's world final in Doha, Qatar, Nov 6-8.

This was a victory for Guizhou, since the first time in the last 6 years for any of their pupils to advance to the world final, and their tutor, Zeng, commented, "The world finals are a pretty big challenge for us, so, rather than seeking a winning place, we consider it a learning experience."

But the kids themselves say they're looking forward to the finals, with Zheng noting that?he searches for all kinds of materials on host city, Doha, and information on the finals on the Internet.

As for Song, when asked about his expectations for the finals, he says that he hopes to join the top eight, then adds with a smile, "Getting the top place is not my dream, my real dream is to assemble a robot transformer all by myself."

The Olympiad started in 2003 as a science, technology and education event to give children an opportunity to expand their horizons by designing and building robot models and experiencing the robot world. It now involves thousands of students, academics, researchers, and developers in the field of robotics, IT and education from 43 member countries.