Cisco has announced the winners of the International NetRiders, an Internet networking competition, which was held on 6 July 2011 across Europe, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Middle East and Africa (MEA).
About 150 Cisco Networking Academy entrants participated simultaneously online, across five different time zones.
Raymond Mazibuko, a 23 year old from Bethal, Mpumalanga, South Africa was the overall winner for MEA and his prize is a fully paid study trip to San Jose, California.
Mazibuko hopes to complete his Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) course and dreams of working for one of the big multinational companies. This is the second consecutive year that South Africa has produced the overall MEA winner.
Mazibuko will be joined by the following global category winners for the California trip in January 2012:
* Overall top male score: Liviu-Valentin Bleotu, Romania
* Overall top female score: Lucia Rosculete, Romania
* Western Europe winner: Fabian Gampfer, Germany
* Central and Eastern Europe, Russia/CIS winner: Viliam Straka, Slovakia
“NetRiders has become established over the last four years as a dynamic means of galvanising our student community, showcasing students’ skills and drawing employers’ attention to the bedrock of talent that the program nurtures right around the world.”
“We are proud of Raymond Mazibuko’s achievement and in the fact that this is the second year that a South African student won this award. In 2011 we celebrate Cisco Networking Academy as the World’s Largest Classroom, reaching more than one million people across the globe and fostering in-demand skills to support people as they build their careers. NetRiders is a celebration of the truly international scope of the program and the caliber of our students,” says Alfie Hamid, regional CSR GEO lead for Sub Saharan Africa – except East Africa.
Staff Writer
