Australian Gold Medal at International Mathematical Olympiad in Athens

Ivan Guo, of Sydney Boys High School, has won a Gold Medal representing Australia at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Athens.

Guo improved his result form 2003, when he won a Bronze Medal in Tokyo. He was also only one of two students to win a perfect score in the 2003 Australian Mathematics Competition for Westpac Awards among almost 500,000 students in Australia and surrounding countries.

Lawrence Field, of Sydney Grammar School, also returned an outstanding result, returning a Silver Medal to match the Silver medal he won in 2003.

Alex Hua, of Scotch College in Melbourne, and Daniel Nadasi, of Cranbrook School in Sydney won Bronze Medals. Hua was only one point short of a Silver Medal while Nadasi had won a Siver Medal in Tokyo in 2003.

The other members of the team, Graham White, of James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney and Kamil Khan, of St Michael's Grammar School in Melbourne, also performed excellently, with White receiving an Honourable Mention for a perfect solution, and Khan just one point short of such a result.

Results of the Australian students are:

Name	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	TOTAL	AWARD
Laurence Field	6	6	3	2	6	1	24
Ivan Guo	7	7	1	7	7	3	32
Alex Hua	7	2	2	7	4	1	23
Kamil Khan	6	1	1	1	1	1	11
Daniel Nadasi	7	3	2	7	0	1	20
Graham White	3	2	2	7	0	1	15
Sum	25	17	0	42	6	2	92

The team total of 125 points placed it 27th of a total of 85 countries, a record number of participating countries.

Team Leader was Dr Angelo Di Pasquale and Deputy Leader Mr Daniel Matthews, both from the University of Melbourne.

Top country scores were from China (220 points), USA (212), Russia (205), Vietnam (196) and Bulgaria (194).

Professor Peter Taylor, Executive Director of the Australian Mathematics Trust, which administers Australia's involvement in the IMO, acknowledged the support of the Australian Government, through its Department of Education, Science and Training. This had taken place through the Department's Quality Outcomes Program, which supports school-based activitiy for enriching the school curriculum through the Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians, and the National Innovation and Awareness Strategy, which supports further training for talented students.

"These projects provide resources to enable many thousands of Australians to benefit and enhance their future University study", Professor Taylor said. "In other countries such resources are directed at the very few students who are likely to be selected in the national team. If we focussed these resources on a narrower number of students we would achieve a higher placing, but this is not our strategy."

Professor Taylor noted that many of these students were first identified in the Australian Mathematics Competition for the Westpac Awards, a broad-based activity involving hundreds of thousands of students of all abilities. This activity tests basic skills, but also skills in problem solving, using their mathematical skills to solve new problems around them. This discovers talent at all levels, including those who make it to the top like Ivan Guo".

In addition to significant Australian Government support, Australia's participation at the International Mathematical Olympiad also receives support from the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers and the Australian Mathematical Society.

The team, from left Ivan Guo, Alex Hua, Graham White, The Hon Gary Nairn MHR, Chairman of House Standing Committee on Innovation and Awareness of Science, Laurence Field, Daniel Nadasi and Kamil Khan, at Parliament House after being presented blazers at a function in June before departure.

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