After displaying one of its best performances ever in last year’s International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) with three bronze medals and two honorable mentions, the Philippine team in this year’s IMO took home a silver, two bronzes, and two honorable mentions ? the best feat the country ever had since joining the world’s hardest math competition.
Adrian Reginald Sy of St. Jude Catholic School, a bronze medalist last year, led the team’s harvest of medals in the 55th IMO held at Cape Town, South Africa last July 3-13 by winning the country’s third silver medal. Fellow St. Jude Catholic School bet Carmela Lao last won it in 2010, the first Filipina to bag the medal.
Winning bronze medals are Farrell Eldrian Wu of MGC New Life Christian Academy, Kyle Patrick Dulay of Philippine Science High School – Main Campus, and Matthew Ryan Tan also of St. Jude Catholic School.
Meanwhile, St. Jude Catholic School?s Czarina Angela Lao and Chiang Kai Shek College’s Clyde Wesley Ang brought home honorable mentions to wrap up a dominant showing of the Philippine delegation.
Sy got the highest score among the Philippine contestants with 23 points while Wu, Dulay, and Tan scored 18, 17,and 16, respectively. Ang tallied 14 while Lao notched eight points completing the country’s total score of 96 jumping from 72 last year.
With its strongest showing yet, the country now belongs in the upper 44 percent of the 101 countries competing this year. The team is led by Dr. Jose Ernie Lope and Joseph Ray Clarence Damasco of the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Mathematics and the Mathematics Society of the Philippines (MSP).
The IMO is composed of six problems that the participants solve in two days. Each problem is worth seven points.
Department of Science and Technology – Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) Director Dr. Josette Biyo congratulated the team for a “superb and historic showing” in the prestigious math competition.
“We are truly amazed by the victory of our national team this year. We are so happy that all six of our bets brought home honors,” she said.
Biyo said the country’s winning streak is “sure to make other countries notice” our leap and shows that science and mathematics education in the Philippines is on the right track.
“Every year, we are inching closer towards getting that gold,? she said. ?We will surely continue providing government support in these types of programs so that we will not only perform better in international contests but more so we will improve the overall science and mathematics education landscape.”
The Philippine participation to the IMO was made possible with the partnership of the DOST-SEI and MSP together with University of the Philippines’ Institute of Mathematics, Foundation for Upgrading the Standards of Education, Metrobank Foundation, Social Security System, and the Mathematics Teachers Association of the Philippines.
