KTH best at programming in the Nordic region
After a five hour long and exhausting struggle in advanced code breaking, KTH took the lead and came home the victor. According to the winning team’s coach Fredrik Niemelä, victory in the Nordic Programming Championships means that things are looking up prior to the qualifying rounds for the World Programming Championships in November.
Last Saturday, the Nordic Programming Championships was decided among a dozen or so universities from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The winning team was from KTH and consisted of Elias Freider, Gustav Larsson and Lukáš Polácek.
“We have been training hard for this competition, so it really felt good that it paid off,” says Fredrik Niemelä, coach for the participating KTH team.
After a five hour struggle, the KTH team was in first place, while the teams from Helsingfors University and NTNU (The Norwegian University of Science and Technology) were in second and third place.
The winning KTH team was a good way down in the results list for quite some time, but with 90 minutes remaining of the competition, they took the lead for the first time.
“It’s fun that a new team that had not previously had experience of competitions like this, comes forward and wins. The results are also extremely promising as we approach the tough World Championships in Germany in the beginning of November,” says Fredrik Niemelä.
The Swedish Championships in 2009 (which form part of the Nordic Championships) ended with a double KTH victory and Lund University in bronze position.
The victories mean that KTH has won the Swedish and Nordic Championships eight years in a row, and that KTH maintains its leading position in the marathon tables for both the Swedish and Nordic Championships.
In total 192 teams participated in the Nordic Programming Championships, and 93 teams participated in the Swedish Championships.
For more information, contact Fredrik Niemelä niemela@csc.kth.se or ring 073 - 377 83 05.