It was certainly fun sitting at the top of the leaderboard for such a long time while all of Europe slept. In the end, it was only in the final hour that medal cut-offs could be estimated and when we knew we had achieved our best-ever performance at an EGMO, placing equal 12th and taking home a gold, silver and bronze medal.
It was an incredible performance from the entire 2020 Australian team who managed to harness all their mathematical grit and determination for two challenging papers from their bedrooms at home. Congratulations to Grace He who placed equal 9th overall amongst all 204 contestants and who is the first Australian to achieve an EGMO gold medal! Congratulations also to Claire Huang for her silver medal and Mikaela Gray for her bronze!
It was another 24 hours until the live-streamed closing ceremony and although that was midnight in Australia, it didn’t stop us celebrating with a party.
Extra baking and decorations marked the occasion…
…and there was EGMO-themed Kahooting and Skribbling online.
Grace didn’t win with her cube-mosaic design, but we all liked it and it was great seeing the winning design from the Netherlands made up of 200 Rubiks’ cubes.
Settling in to watch the closing ceremony at midnight, it was strange to think this virtual journey was nearly over.
It was exciting to get a glimpse of Kutaisi, Georgia, where the 10th EGMO will be held in April 2021 and to find out that Hungary will host the 11th EGMO in 2022. We’ve got them marked on our map already (almost … Kutaisi is on the border of the map!).
Eventually it was tot ziens (so long) from the Netherlands.
…and farewell from us.
We certainly had a ball at the first-ever virtual EGMO. Thank you so much for having us from down-under and we’ll see you next year!
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