South Africa climbs Mathematics Olympiad table
The South African team at the International Mathematics Olympiad has finished 55 out of 104 countries – an improvement when compared to recent years.
The SA team’s performance has declined since 2011, but this trend has now been reversed. It was also the team’s best performance since 2011.
The International Mathematics Olympiad is the world championship mathematics competition for high school students and is held annually.
The first Olympiad was held in 1959 in Romania, with seven countries participating. Nowadays, there are over 100 countries participating from five continents.
The 2015 Olympiad was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 4 to 16 July.
Read: Nearly 1,500 senior public schools in SA do not offer maths
The South African team consisted of Yaseen Mowzer, Nicholas Kroon, David Neal Broodryk, Bronson Rudner, Andrew McGregor, and Sanjiv Ranchod.
Mowzer walked away with a bronze medal, while Rudner and McGregor received honourable mentions.
Team leader Dirk Basson said he was pleased with the team’s performance: “Being in the 55th position has moved us up by nine positions, which is much better than last year.”
The graph below shows the performance of the South African team over recent years.
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