
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 3, 1993                   TAG: 9307030276
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Short

GEOGRAPHY CONTEST WON BY . . . AMERICANS!

Three teen-agers from the United States can now lay claim to being the best young team of geography experts in the world. Not bad for students from a country where, according to one survey, 25 per cent of the people wouldn't know the Pacific Ocean if they fell into it.

The American team Friday came from two points behind a British team in the final round of the International Geography Olympiad, winning by three points. Three Russian teens finished 11 points behind the Americans.

The Americans are Noel Erinjeri, 14, team captain, of Flint, Mich.; Michael Ring, 14, of Woonsocket, R.I., and Jeffrey Hoppes, 13, of Lancaster, Pa.

Victory, along with $2,000 and a gold medal for each student, came on a question given in the form of a clue by Alex Trebek, host of the television show `Jeopardy': "This river of 2,600 miles rises in the Tangla Mountains of Central China."

They quickly wrote their answer, then had doubts. But they were correct. It is the Mekong River.

- Cox News Service

by CNB