PH team bags 2 gold medals at Int’l Math Olympiad in HK

FACEBOOK PHOTO/International Mathematical Olympiad

AFTER three decades of effort and collaboration, the Philippine team finally garnered not just one, but two, elusive gold medals at the 57th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) held in Hong Kong from July 6 to 16, competing with over 600 contestants from 111 countries.

Winning the gold are Farrell Eldrian S. Wu of Makati Gospel Church-New Life Christian Academy and Kyle Patrick F. Dulay of the Philippine Science High School-Diliman, who scored 30 and 29 points, respectively.

The most rigorous and prestigious annual math competition and the oldest of the Science Olympiads for precollege students, the IMO is considered the Holy Grail of math talent in the world.

Contestants wrestle with three complex math problems for 4.5 hours each over two days, covering number theory, combinatorics, geometry and algebra (polynomials, inequalities, functional equations).

Calculators are not allowed, and calculus is not required.

Richard Eden of the Ateneo de Manila University (Admu) Mathematics Department, a former IMO contestant himself, was the team’s leader, with Louie John Vallejo of the University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman Institute of Mathematics as deputy.

The Philippine team ranked 17th out of 109 countries, with a total team score of 133.

“This brought us closer to Asian powerhouses such as Vietnam (11th) and Thailand (12th),” said Eden. “For the first time ever, we ranked higher than usually strong countries like Bulgaria (18th), Germany (19th) and Romania (20th).”

Last year, the Philippines ranked 36th out of 104 countries.

The contest proper consisted of six nonroutine math problems, each worth seven points, for a possible perfect individual total score of 42. This year, contestants who received 29 points were awarded gold; 22 points, silver; 16 points, bronze.

Due to the complexity of the problems, contestants who answered at least one problem completely, even without meeting the cut-off scores, already received honorable mention.

Clyde Wesley S. Ang of Chiang Kai Shek College and Albert John L. Patupat of De La Salle University Integrated School scored 24 and 23 points, respectively, winning silver medals.

Shaquille Wyan T. Que of Grace Christian College and Vince Jan F. Torres of Santa Rosa Science and Technology High School obtained 15 and 12 points, respectively, for honorable mention.

This year, for the first time, everyone in the Philippine team—all high school students below 20 years old—were given honors at the closing ceremonies at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre yesterday. They are scheduled to fly home today.

The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959, with the Philippines sending an official team in 1989, under the leadership of the late Admu mathematician Jose A. Marasigan.

But as the country’s IMO participation grew, the selection process became more refined, as the team adopted the battle cry “Go for Gold” under Ateneo’s Ian June L. Garces, who became head coach and team leader in 2007.

“We thank Ester B. Ogena, Philippine Normal University president, who was then the Department of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) director. She made available funds for sustained training,” said Garces.

Since then, the members of the Philippine team has been selected from the top scorers of the Philippine Math Olympiad (PMO), under the auspices of the Mathematical Society of the Philippines, the implementing arm of our IMO quest.