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19 juillet 2005

CANADA WINS ONE GOLD, TWO SILVER AND TWO BRONZE MEDALS AT THE 46TH INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD IN MÉRIDA, MEXICO.

Competing against students from 90 other countries, Canadian high school students have done extremely well winning one Gold Medal, two silver, and two Bronze Medals at the 46th International Mathematical Olympiad in (IMO) Mérida, Mexico, from July 8 -19, 2005.

The six students who competed for Canada were: Lin Fei, Don Mills Collegiate Institute, Toronto (Ontario); Elyot Grant, Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute, Kitchener (Ontario); Yang (Richard) Peng, Vaughan Road Academy, Toronto (Ontario); Dong Uk (David) Rhee, McNally High School, Edmonton (Alberta); Peng Shi, Sir John A. MacDonald Collegiate Institute, Toronto (Ontario); and Yufei Zhao, Don Mills Collegiate Institute, Toronto (Ontario).

The team was accompanied by the Team Leader, Dr. Felix Recio (University of Toronto), the Deputy Team Leader, Dr. Dorette Pronk (Dalhousie University), and the Deputy Leader Observer, Mr. Adrian Tang (University of Calgary).

Although the closing ceremony, scheduled for July 18th, had to be cancelled due to Hurricane Emily, a Gold Medal was awarded to Yufei Zhao; Silver Medals to Yang (Richard) Peng and Peng Shi, and Bronze Medals to Elyot Grant and Donk Uk (David) Rhee.

"Our young team performed exceptionally well in the competition and were excellent ambassadors for Canada in dealing with the conditions from Hurricane Emily. I am very proud of all of them," said Dr. Recio.

"The IMO is the world championship high school mathematics competition. All six problems were very difficult and all of the Canadian students have done remarkably well. They have all demonstrated the problem solving skills, knowledge and creativity that is essential to compete at this very high level," said Dr. Graham Wright, Executive Director of the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS), the organization responsible for the selection and training of Canada's IMO team.

Although students compete individually, country rankings are obtained by adding the team's scores. The maximum score for each student is 42 and for a team of six students the maximum is 252. The Canadian team placed 19th out of 91 competing countries with a score of 132.

Since 1981, Canadian students have received a total of 16 gold, 29 silver, and 57 bronze medals.

The six members of the Canadian IMO team were selected from among more than 200,000 students who participated in local, provincial and national mathematics contests. Prior to leaving for the 46th IMO, the team trained at the University of Calgary and at the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) from June 25th to July 10th, 2005.

The 2005 IMO contest was set by an international jury of mathematicians, one from each country, and was written on Wednesday July 13th and Thursday July 14th. On each day of the contest, three questions had to be solved within a time limit of four and one-half hours. Team members must be less than 20 years old when they write the IMO.

The top 10 teams and their scores are: China (235); USA (213); Russia (212); Iran (201); Korea (200); Romania (191); Taiwan (190); Japan (188); Hungary (181); Ukraine (181).

The team will be returning to Canada today (July 19th), arriving at Pearson International Airport (Terminal 1) on Air Canada flight 992 at 7:40 PM.

Sponsors of the 2005 Canadian IMO team include: the Canadian Mathematical Society; NSERC PromoScience; the Ontario Ministry of Education; Alberta Learning; Nova Scotia Department of Education; the Newfoundland and Labrador Ministry of Education; the Quebec Ministry of Education; the Northwest Territories Ministry of Education; the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education; Sun Life Financial; the Samuel Beatty Fund; Maplesoft; Centre de recherches mathématiques; the Fields Institute; the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New Brunswick at Fredericton; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa; le département de mathématiques, Université du Québec à Montréal; the Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto; the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, University of Waterloo; the Department of Mathematics, Wilfrid Laurier University; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Winnipeg; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University; and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dalhousie University.

The 47th International Mathematical Olympiad will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from July 6 to 18, 2006.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Graham P. Wright
Executive Director
Canadian Mathematical Society
(613) 290-3046 (Cell)
(613) 562-5702 (CMS Office)
director@cms.math.ca
www.cms.math.ca/Concours

Société mathématique du Canada
616 Cooper St. 
Ottawa (ON)  K1R 5J2, Canada
Téléphone : +1 (613) 733-2662

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