Aakanksha Sarda is among the five Indian students who qualified for the 41st International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) to be held in Zagreb, Croatia, from July 17 to 25. She is only the second girl from the country to ever have achieved the milestone.

Interestingly, during her school time she hardly managed to pass the exams in physics. The 18 year old student from Mumbai will soon join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her undergraduate studies.

"My mother pushed me to relook at physics and the logic of the subject soon dawned on me. Physics is my favourite subject," she said. However, her renewed interest in physics has not changed everything in her life. She said, "I still manage to catch a couple of movies every week. I learn French and I am going for the international linguistics Olympiad. Last year, I won a silver."

Other finalists who will represent the country at the event are Mehul Kumar from Jaipur; Sanchar Sharma from Jodhpur; Shivam Handa from Delhi and Vipul Singh from Bhilai.

About 36,000 students participated in the first level examination from across the country and about 312 were selected for the Indian National Physics Olympiad (INPhO) examination.

After the INPhO examination across 15 centers across the country, 37 students were selected for the intensive training camp which was organized from May 4 to 17. The list of five finalists was announced on Monday.

Vijay Singh, National Coordinator for Science Olympiads said, "All the students who participated in the camp were brilliant. The top five we have selected will go on and represent India at the International Physics Olympiad 2010 and I am sure they will do the country proud."

The country has been performing well at the Physics Olympiad in recent years and garnered four gold medals and one silver medal. Sarda's optimism is that her team will be able to bring five gold medals this time.