RIYADH: Five of the Kingdom’s brightest children were among the prizewinners at this year’s Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad in Albania.
The five-day event, which ended on Wednesday in Tirana, attracted 115 students from 19 countries.
The Saudi team trained for the event with the help of the Ministry of Education, the Mawhiba foundation which supports gifted children and King Abdullah University for Science and Technology.
Two of the youngsters — Elias El-Faraj from the Eastern Province and Abdelsalam El-Sulami from Madinah — took home silver medals, while Abdullah Amer from Eastern Province, Mohamed El-Said from Al-Ahsa and Ahmed El-Shehri from Riyadh each won bronze.
Dr. Amal bint Abdullah Al-Hazaa, the general director of Mawhiba, was full of praise for the students and their impressive achievements in an international competition.
“This remarkable success stands as a testament to the ongoing streak of accomplishments and represents the collective efforts of Mawhiba and its partners in fulfilling the objectives outlined in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.”
The Saudi team was making its 12th consecutive appearance in the mathematics contest. In that time they have amassed nine gold, 21 silver and 23 bronze medals.
The competition has been running since 1997 and is organized annually by a rotating host among the Balkan countries and Cyprus. All of the participants in the junior event are aged between 6 and 15.
