Philippine bags medals at international math tourney

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s young math wizards have again brought pride to the Philippines, this time in the recently concluded International Teenagers’ Mathematical Olympiad (ITMO) 2015 held at Sungai Pentani, Kedah, Malaysia from Dec. 10 to 14.

The Philippine delegation, composed of 16 students from different private and public schools, bagged a total of 110 medals at the tournament – 15 gold, 24 silver, 28 bronze and 43 merit medals.

The tournament is composed of individual, team and group contests, with the Philippine Team divided into four teams: A, B, C and D.

Receiving gold medals in the individual contest are Jinger Chong (Grade 9) and Stefan Marcus Ong (Grade 8), both from St. Jude Catholic School.

Three students bagged silver medals: Steven Reyes (Grade 7) of St. Jude Catholic School, Andres Rico Gonzales III (Grade 8) of Colegio de San Juan de Letran and Terence Brian Tsai (Grade 8) of Chiang Kai Shek College.

Nine students received bronze medals: William Joshua King (Grade 8) of Bethany Christian School, Eason Wong (Grade 10) of Philippine Culture College-Annex, Alyana Zoie Chua (Grade 10) of MGC New Life Christian Academy, Natalia Beatrice Dy (Grade 9) of St. John’s Institute, Tiffany Mae Ong (Grade 10) of Immaculate Christian Academy-Greenhills, Eion Nikolai Chua (Grade 8) of MGC New Life Christian Academy, Bryce Ainsley Sanchez (Grade 7) of Grace Christian College, Elijamin Wolfgang Claveria (Grade 10) of the Philippine Science High School-Main Campus and Xavier Jefferson Ray Go (Grade 10) of Zamboanga Chong Hua High School. Jarrett Ian Lim (Grade 10) of the Philippine Academy of Sakya and Xuanye Li (Grade 10) of Xavier School each received a merit medal.

In the Puzzle Challenge, which was a 4D tic-tac-toe tournament, Eason Wong and Eion Nikolai Chua placed second and third, respectively.

In the overall results of the team contest, Team Philippines D was first runner-up in the Blue Group, Team Philippines C placed second in the Red Group, Team Philippines A placed second in the Green Group and Team Philippines B placed second in the Yellow Group.

As for the group contest, Teams B, C and D were first runners-up in their respective groups, while Team A placed second in its group.

The Philippine delegation was headed by team leaders Isidro Aguilar, Arvie Ubarro, Renard Eric Chua and Manuel Kotah and assisted by deputy team leaders  Enerio Sagusay, Joseph Wee, Ivan Roblas and Juriel Pollisco.

The group was among 160 participants from 11 countries, including Bulgaria, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nepal, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ITMO, which was called Asian Inter-cities Teenagers’ Mathematical Olympiad (AITMO) until last year, is an annual mathematics competition designed to improve the mathematical talents and skills of students and teachers in junior high school.