(Photo: screenshot)

SARAJEVO, May 17 (Xinhua) -- The 19th "Chinese Bridge" language competition was held online in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Sunday via WeChat, a social messaging app, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The winner of this year's competition is Mian Palikuca, a student from the Department of Sinology of University of East Sarajevo.

"Chinese is a language of great literary wealth and it offers many opportunities for career advancement," Palikuca told Xinhua.

Two students of the Confucius Institute in Banja Luka, the second-largest city in BiH, won the second and third place.

Doroteja Klacar, who teaches Chinese at the University of East Sarajevo, said that many people have been looking forward to the annual contest.

As a judge at the competition, she was particularly impressed that despite the pandemic, students were well-prepared and teachers did their best to coach contestants.

"People who love Chinese will continue to work hard for the teaching of Chinese no matter what difficulties they face," Klacar said.

As of Sunday, BiH health authorities recorded 2,290 COVID-19 cases, with 133 deaths.