VietNamNet Bridge – The impressive achievements gained by Vietnamese students at the 2017 international Olympiads have made history and affirmed the intelligence, skill and spirit of the Vietnamese people.
With four gold medals, one silver and one bronze, the Vietnamese team at the 2017 IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad) gained the highest achievements since the day Vietnam began participating in the competitions 47 years ago.
Local newspapers commented that Le Ba Khanh Trinh, deputy head of the Vietnamese delegation at the 2017 IMO, and Le Anh Vinh, deputy head of the Vietnam Education Science Institute, head of the delegation, were very happy with the awards.
In 2011, Vietnam, a ‘math power’, fell out of the top 30 with just six bronze medals won at IMO.
In 2012, Le Ba Khanh Trinh, a renowned mathematician, was assigned to act as deputy head of the Vietnamese delegation to attend IMO.
Vietnam jumped into the 9th position in that year. In the following years, as the ‘captain’, Trinh helped maintain impressive achievements for the Vietnamese team.
In 2017, the position of the captain was assigned to Le Anh Vinh, the silver medal winner at the 2001 IMO, who obtained a Harvard PhD at the age of 27.
Though Vietnamese competitors had to spend 16 hours on the transit in France, they did not have any trouble as Vinh was very considerate towards the students and bought food for them.
“All the students were very good and disciplined,” Trinh said.
“The food in Brazil was good, so everyone could eat well. There was one big dish of food for everyone each meal. While teachers could eat half of the dish, students ate it all up,” he said.
However, after the first competition day, Nguyen Nhat Duy from the Ha Tinh High School for the Gifted, skipped meals because he said he could not solve the exam questions well. Only after encouragement from the teacher did Duy take his meal.
On the next day, Duy recovered and gained a 25 score to win the gold medal.
However, it was Hoang Huu Quoc Huy from Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted who was the biggest surprise to his teachers.
When the second competition day finished, Huy wrote three pages for each exam question, but was not sure about the result. But Huy became one of the three competitors who gained the highest score at this year’s IMO.
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Thanh Lich