Students who will represent the Netherlands and Norway at the 7th International Turkish Olympics being held in İstanbul in June competed in their national finals on Sunday evening.

Both immigrant Turks and native Dutch showed huge interest in the Dutch leg of the Turkish Olympics, which was held in Rotterdam, where three students took the top honors, earning the right to participate in the International Turkish Olympics in İstanbul.Turkish student Ayşe Akça ranked first in poetry recitation in the mother tongue, while Remy Kribo ranked first in basic-level singing and Ricardo Wouterse ranked first in basic-level poetry recitation.The top three students were awarded prizes. The Norwegian leg of the Turkish Olympics was held in Oslo, where 19 students competed against each other to qualify to represent their country in İstanbul. Delivering a speech ahead of the competition, Fahrettin Çalışkan, the head of the Norway Turkish Olympics Organizing Committee, said, "We were dreaming about a generation in Norway committed to its own values; now we see that our dream has come true." -   17 March 2009, TuesdayTODAY'S ZAMAN  İSTANBUL