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South African team ranked 62nd at International Mathematical Olympiad

Tuesday, 17 July 2018

South African team ranked 62nd at International Mathematical Olympiad

Romania hosted the world’s brightest mathletes at the 59th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) from the 3rd till the 14th of July. South Africa won one bronze medal and is ranked 62nd out of 107 countries.

A total of 615 contestants from 107 countries participated in this year’s IMO. The IMO ranks each team according to the team’s individual combined results. The top five countries at the 2018 IMO in ranking order are: United States of America (5 gold medals and 1 silver medal), Russian Federation (5 gold medals and 1 silver medal), People’s Republic of China (4 gold medals and 2 silver medals), Ukraine (4 gold medals and 2 silver medals) and Thailand (3 gold medals and 3 silver medals).

South Africa participated in the IMO since 1992 with the highest ranking of 27th in 2000. This year’s South African team was made up by 6 Capetonian boys. Adri Wessels (grade 11 from Curro Durbanville),Taariq Mowzer (grade 11 from Fairbain College), Emil van der Walt (grade 11 from Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck),Tim Schlesinger (grade 12 from Rondebosch Boys’ High School), Emile Tredoux (grade 12 from Parklands College) and Ralph McDougall (grade 12 from Curro Durbanville). They have been training under the watchful eyes of team leaders Mr Liam Baker and Mr Phil Labuschagne.

Emile Tredoux walked away with a bronze medal and was very ecstatic about his performance. “The opportunity to represent my country abroad has always been one of my goals. Being in Romania afforded me the opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals who enjoy doing mathematics as well,” said Emile Tredoux, the only new member of the team. Adri Wessels, Taariq Mowzer, Tim Schlesinger and Ralph McDougall each received honourable mentions for solving at least one question correctly. These and other top performing learners will now compete for the South African Mathematics Olympiad’s (SAMO) Dirk van Rooy Gold Medal which will be awarded at the national awards of the South African Mathematics Foundation on the 23rd of September 2018.

South Africa, who recently won the Pan African Mathematics Olympiad, was again the best African country to partake in the 2018 IMO. A total of 11 African countries took part. The other African countries in ranking order are Tunisia (70), Morocco (73), Nigeria (83), Algeria (92), Ghana (94), Botswana (95), Egypt (99), Uganda (100), Ivory Coast (102) and Tanzania (107).

IMO 2018 team

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