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Local boy wins Florida Geographic Bee hosted by JU

Geography whizzes from all over the Sunshine State descended on Terry Concert Hall at Jacksonville University April 5, as the University again hosted the state Geographic Bee.
Walker Miller, left, gets a congratulatory handshake from Martin Konstantinov after Miller beat Konstantinov on the final question of the April 5 Florida Geographic Bee hosted by Jacksonville University. Photo by Bob Self/Florida Times-Union.
The Florida Times-Union was there to chronicle the event, won by Walker Miller, a seventh-grader at James Weldon Johnson Middle School, who beat out dozens of others to become the state’s National Geographic Bee champion.
T-U reporter Khristopher Brooks wrote in an April 6 story that Miller is the first Jacksonville student to win the competition. The 13-year-old will now vie for the national title and a $25,000 scholarship next month in Washington.
Miller told Brooks afterward that he does not study maps but reviews atlases two or three times a week, and that he will prepare for the national competition the same way.
“I’ve watched the national competition on TV and those questions are incredibly difficult,” he told Brooks for the article.
On the final question, Miller correctly answered Japan when asked the name of a large coal importer that is an Asian constitutional monarchy made up of many islands.