The Silver Medals were won by Andrew Elvey Price, of Brunswick Secondary College, Vic, Giles Gardam, of Hurlstone Agricultural High School, who lives in Hay NSW and boards, Paul Cheung, of Sydney Technical High School, NSW, Max Menzies, of Sydney Grammar School, NSW and Irene Lo, of James Ruse Agricultural High School, NSW. The remaining member of the team, Sampson Wong, also of James Ruse Agricultural High School, won a Bronze Medal.

For Max it was a second Silver Medal, as he had also won one in Hanoi last year. Giles and Irene won Bronze Medals in Hanoi.

Australia is placed in 19th position, of 97 teams, three places higher than in 2007. In doing so Australia got the highest score of any Western country other than the US, defeating the strong German team and finishing ahead of Canada and Italy, and the United Kingdom again. Teams which Australia passed from last year were Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Belarus and Moldova. Peru and Brazil both finished ahead of Australia after being behind in 2007. This was the first time Australia had defeated Belarus, and the team also finished just one point behind the traditionally strong Romanian team.

China had the highest score. Other team scores will be published on this site in the next few days.

Results of the Australian students are:

		NAME	YR	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	TOT
		CHEUNG Paul Sydney Technical High School NSW	12	7	4	0	7	7	0	25
		ELVEY PRICE, Andrew Brunswick Secondary College VIC	11	7	7	0	7	7	1	29
		GARDAM Giles Hurlstone Agricultural High School NSW	12	7	4	0	7	7	0	25
		LO Irene James Ruse Agricultural High School NSW	12	7	1	0	7	7	0	22
		MENZIES Max Sydney Grammar School NSW	12	7	5	4	1	7	0	24
		WONG Sampson James Ruse Agricultural High School NSW	10	7	1	0	6	0	1	15
		TOTALS		42	22	4	35	35	2	140

(Cut-offs for Bronze, Silver and Gold were 15, 22 and 31 points respectively.)

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

Medals were presented at the Closing Ceremony in the evening of Monday 21 July, attended by the Spanish Prince and Princess.

Professor Peter Taylor, Executive Director of the Australian Mathematics Trust, which administers Australia's involvement in the IMO, was with the team and acknowledged the quality of the training which is led by Angelo Di Pasquale and Norman Do. "Running this Olympiad, and disciplines in other scientific disciplines, is just the tip of the iceberg for a program which benefits tens of thousands of Australian students. In order to run a program like this, and making it accessible to all we are critically dependent on long term base funding from the Australian Government. I would like to aknowledge that this has been given by the Australian Government, through its Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR)," he said.

"The funding enables the leveraging of incalculable hours of volunteer teachers and academics who are happy to make time available to support the program."

"Participation in this Olympiad, which is sanctioned by UNESCO, is part of a complete range of mathematics enrichment activities made available by the Trust. At the first level several hundred thousand students take part in the Australian Mathematics Competition, in schools throughout Australia. At the next level, over 20,000 students enrol in the Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians and after that the top students are invited to take part in further training leading to possible selection in the Australian team."

"All of these students enhance their knowledge, and particularly their problem solving capabilities, which are so vital for making them ready for employment or future University study. There is now less time available in the classroom for teaching mathematics, and as a result, that time is largely focused on the more basic numeracy and manipulative components of mathematics. Our programs enable students to develop their problem solving skills and using them in meeting challenges which happen in real life."

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.

Some Country Scores

These are unofficial and as we obtained. There may be errors.

Peter Taylor
Sunday 20 July 2008