When asked how he feels about winning a bronze medal in the world’s biggest math
competition, Isuru Fernando (19) is at a loss for words. After a while he shares “I don’t know what to say. It’s one of the most prestigious competitions in the world. It’s like winning an Olympic medal.”
The International Mathematics Olympiad is an annual competition in mathematics in which scores of teenagers from across the world participate. Isuru was in the team of 6 Sri Lankan participants who took part in the competition held in Amsterdam this year. Though the competition has been around since 1959, Sri Lanka’s participation has been relatively recent having first taken up the challenge in 1995.
This year the participants included Isuru who is from St. Sabastian’s Collge in Moratuwa,
Madhura Pathegama (18) from Rahula Collge in Matara, Viduranga Wijekoon (19) from Royal College Colombo, Dulaj Gunawardena (19) from Dharmaraja College, Manuja Gunawardana (19) from Ananda College Colombo and Mevan Wijewardena (14) from Maliyadeva College in Kurunegala.
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| The Lankan team |
Apart from Isuru’s bronze medal, Madhura and Viduranga were awarded honourable mentions. This was quite an achievement according to Isuru as he says that the Sri Lankan students were only familiar with one of the categories of mathematics in the competition. “This time it was good. We Sri Lankans are more inclined to geometry because it’s in the school curriculum. Two other subjects, number theory and combinatorics aren’t in the curriculum,” he adds “the problems were creative though.”
He goes on to explain the meticulous process in which the top candidates from across the island are selected by the Sri Lanka Mathematics Olympiad. An all island maths competition is held in which the best 40 participants are selected, they proceed through a training programme for 2 to 3 weeks after which another exam is sat for and the top 12 are chosen. The exercise is repeated once again and after the final exam the 4 leading students go on to participate in the international tournament.
Dr. Chanakya Wijeratne, the Chief Executive Officer of Sri Lanka Olympiad says, “even
though the team this team scored less than last year, this year’s performance was good or even better than last year”. He goes on to explain, “Isuru won a bronze medal for completing solving a combinatorics problem. Our students usually can’t complete combinatorics problems, so that is a big achievement. And he solved algebra completely as well”. He also says that Viduranga, who received the best results island wide for the A/Ls, did the Sri Lankan team proud by scoring a full 7 points.
Another notable mention is Mevan is only 14 years of age who out shone several senior
students as he was one of the final 4 students selected.
With more of Sri Lanka’s math whizz kids taking up the challenge, Sri Lanka can show the world we don’t only produce talented cricketers but brilliant mathematicians as well. |
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