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Gibraltar’s Cyber Centurions do it again, taking first in junior category and third overall

Gibraltar’s junior team won the top prize in their category in the UK-wide Cyber Centurion finals this week, with the senior team coming third in the overall competition.

CyberCenturion is a cyber security competition for comprehensive-age students and competition is tough, with hundreds of teams from across the UK and its overseas territories participating every year.

This year’s results are the latest in a string of successes by local students, who are coached by a dedicated team of cyber experts from the public and private sectors led by Stewart Harrison, the
head of physics at Bayside Comprehensive.

In 2016, a team from Gibraltar won the top prize in the competition, while in 2018, a team of local girls were crowned the UK’s top all-girls team.

This year three Gibraltar mixed-gender teams reached the finals, including the younger students who participated in the competition’s first-ever under-14 category and won it.

Mr Harrison said he was delighted with the results and highlighted how important it was that younger students under the age of 14 were taking up the challenge.

“To win the Junior category is no easy feat and shows how far they have come in their first year,” he said.

“Being a mixed sex team is also exciting and is a model that must be encouraged throughout their education, that male and females working together as a team will achieve the best results.”

“There is a skills gap and a gender gap in this sector and I think what the results today show is that Gibraltar is doing what it can to close both of these.”

“Developing skills at a young age, watching them flourish over the years and encouraging females to work together with males to achieve amazing results is a recipe that is now delivering.”

“I have always had the full support of the Department of Education and private sector companies and without these none of the achievements over the past four years would be possible.”

He also praised how the senior team had developed over several years of competing.

G Sec

G Sec

The finals were held at Queen Elizabeth Park in London and saw local students from Westside, Bayside and Gibraltar College compete in the day-long event.

The event was not without a touch of drama however, after human error led to an initial mix-up in the results announcement.

The organisers and sponsors will honour the prizes for all the teams caught up in the mix-up, reflecting the achievement of reaching the final stages of an event where competition is intense.

The Gibraltarian students who won the junior category were team Bayside Cyber 1 [pictured above in main photo], made up of Erin Mora-Colton; Lorena Risk-Fadul; Dylan Risso; Kyle Cuadra-Morris; and Diego Guzman.

The senior team which came third in the overall competition, G Sec, was made up of Jamie Weigold; Adam Rocca; Louis Smalls; Leon Wellstead; and Szabi Lassan.

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