Fourteen gold medalists brought honor to the Philippines in the prestigious World International Mathematical Olympiad (WIMO) held last January 6-7, 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Leading the gold medalists are 4 World Champions who topped the scores in their respective grade levels, namely, elementary school students Liam Spark Palarca (Kamuning Elementary School) and Carsten Edmund Ang (Chinese International School Manila) as well as high school students Brian Jansen Vallejo (Sarrat National High School) and Reuben Joseph Felix (Philippine Science High School – Calabarzon Region Campus).
Completing the elite World Gold Medalists are Caiser Charleton So (Philippine Cultural College – Caloocan), Rei Megan Auza (Sacred Heart School – Ateneo de Cebu), Agatha Maria Eden Nunag (PAREF Rosehill School Antipolo), Blake Maxwell Chayco (Xavier School San Juan), Jayden Thompson Ong (Xavier School San Juan), Rhyo Lincoln Sunico (Stonyhurst Southville International School Batangas), Allen Iver Barroga (Sarrat National High School), Annika Louise Ong (Immaculate Conception Academy Greenhills), Zyrene Angelica Dulluog (Sarrat National High School), and Joshua Mari Velasco (Quezon City Science High School). The Philippines also bagged 18 silver and 30 bronze medals from kinder to senior high school levels.
Topping this year’s Philippine schools’ medal tally is Ilocos Norte’s Sarrat National High School which contributed 3 gold medals, closely followed by Xavier School San Juan with 2 gold medals. Nine other Philippine schools contributed one gold medal each.
WIMO participation, dubbed as the “Battle of the Golds,” is strictly by invitation to the gold medalists in the final rounds of each of these three international math competitions: Hong Kong International Mathematical Olympiad, Thailand International Mathematical Olympiad, and the Guangdong Greater Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad. More than forty thousand students worldwide aspired this year to qualify for the WIMO heading to the finals which was held exclusively onsite at the world-renowned Universiti Malaya, Malaysia’s oldest university.
A select panel of international math experts prepared the WIMO test questions covering the following areas of mathematics: logical thinking, arithmetic, number theory, geometry, and combinatorics. WIMO is sponsored by the WIMO Foundation and is presented in the Philippines by the Math Olympiads Training League, Inc.