A group of primary school students returned home on Tuesday from the final round of the Hong Kong International Mathematics Olympiad 2018 with 42 gold, 59 silver and 40 bronze medals.
Arriving at Suvarnabhumi airport from Hong Kong about 1am, the young students were greeted enthusiastically by relatives and teachers eager to congratulate them on their successes.
About 170 young Thais took part in the competition from Friday until Monday. Their awards also included four championship trophies and two World Star trophies.
Kirachaphas “Ho Son” Thaworn, 11, a Prathom 6 student at Assumption College Sriracha won one of the two World Star trophies and also scored the second highest overall points at the international completion.
He was the national champion in the Thai round of the competition ahead of the Hong Kong Olympiad, in which he beat 1,300 competitors from 15 countries in taking second place.
Only competitors from Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Iran made it into the final round.
Kirachaphas said he began participating in Thailand’s national round competitions three years ago. He won a silver medal then, so he kept practicing and improving his maths skills until he won a gold medal this year.
Practising by always solving maths problems in English instead of in Thai helped him perform faster in the international round of the competition, Kirachaphas said.
The Hong Kong Mathematics Olympiad is jointly organised by the Mathematics Education Section of the Education Bureau and the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology of the Education University of Hong Kong.