Two students from Shenzhen have won gold medals in two categories at the Asia Open Memory Championship 2017 held in Hong Kong recently.

Eleven-year-old Wang Xinyu, who is a fifth grade student from Shenzhen Liyuan Primary School, won first place at speed cards (junior division) for his time of 31 seconds.

Tan Jiajun, who is 10 years old and a fourth grade student from Shenzhen Caitian School, won first place in fictional dates (junior division), a task in which contestants memorize dates and events, with a score of 40 dates in five minutes.

The event was held in Hong Kong from August 26 to 27. A total of 155 contestants from China, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Mongolia, Malaysia, South Korea and the United States participated in the competition. The top-notch international event has also gathered many famous players, including world champions and an elite team of 20 people from Mongolia.

The competition is structured into three divisions based on difficulty level and 10 challenge categories: names & faces, binary numbers, random numbers, random cards, random images, speed numbers, fictional dates, random words, spoken numbers and speed cards. Speed cards entails memorizing the order of a randomly-shuffled deck of cards within five minutes and would be deemed an unimaginable ability by the common person, but it is classified at entry level in this competition.

Wang Xinyu and Tan Jiajun’s road to victory started under the tutorage of Shenzhen’s first memory master, “Super Brain” Chinese team leader Li Wei and his educational institution Genius Raiser. Li has represented the Chinese team on numerous trips to world memory championships and has won many awards himself. In recent years, he has committed to teaching what he has learned to students in Shenzhen and across China.

“I can’t believe I got good scores as it was the first time I entered the competition. Thank you, teacher Li,” said Wang Xinyu. But for Li, these achievements were not beyond imagination.

“As long as the method is right, along with scientific guidance and practice, everyone can have a super brain,” he said. “The meanings of competitions not only lie in winning or losing, but also in helping children understand themselves, build confidence, and continue to make breakthroughs.”

After the competition, the two winning students from Shenzhen said they also wanted to thank their schools and parents, who had loved, supported and helped them all along.

It was the first time that both of the children participated in an international competition.

(Zhang Yu)