Alappuzha, Wednesday 27 January 2010: Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram, was declared overall champions in the Kerala University Youth Festival, which drew to a close on Tuesday after six days of tightly fought contests in 62 events involving over 5,000 students from nearly 200 colleges.

Students of Mar Ivanios mopped up 137 points to win the trophy, while the second position went to All Saints’ College, Thiruvananthapuram, which had 80 points. SST College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram, was placed third with 54 points.

Actor Mammootty inaugurated the valedictory function and gave away trophies to the winning team; to Sreekuttan M.S of University College, Thiruvananthapuram, who was selected the ‘Kalaprathibha’ with 18 points; and to Madhavi Chandran of All Saints’ College, Thiruvananthapuram, who bagged 19 points to become the ‘Kalathilakam.’

Mammootty lauded the winners. He, however, said those who missed out on trophies should not lose heart and confidence. There would be more opportunities in the time to come and the battle with challenges thrown at them by life would continue.

He said youth festivals were stages that protected the culture and art forms of the country from the onslaught of foreign cultures.

Mammootty said he never had the confidence or self-belief to win prizes or contest at the university level when he was a student in a college under the University of Kerala. One reason was that there were several others with more talent than him.

However, competition never ends, he said, pointing out that he never gave up and still competed with newcomers in the industry. The reason was that he never lost the desire to come up trumps. A poor performance on one day should never be seen as a permanent setback, Mammootty said.

Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac; A.M. Arif and P. Thilothaman, MLAs; district panchayat president R. Nazar; University Union chairman K. Pradeep; and general secretary Prahas Nair; spoke.