South China Morning Post
July 26, 2005

Olympiad medals add up to top effort

by CINDY PAT

A team of six Hong Kong secondary school students grabbed one gold
medal, three silver and one bronze at the 46th International
Mathematical Olympiad in Mexico from July 11 to 19.

It raised Hong Kong’s ranking in the competition from 30th last year
to 17th among 91 countries, the city’s best effort.

The team members were Tsoi Yun-pui from Sha Tin Government Secondary
School, Poon Ming-fung from STFA Leung Kau Kui College, Jack Hui and
Siu Ho-chung from Queen’s College, Chung On-yip from Queen Elizabeth
School and Wong Chiu-wai from St Joseph’s College.

Each team member had to complete six questions selected from a pool
of 100 submitted by all participating countries. Yun-pui, Hong Kong’s
gold medallist, scored full marks in five.

“If there’s any secret to my success, it is my strong interest in
maths,” the Form Six student said. “When you discover your interest
in a certain area, a natural drive pushes you towards digging out
more of it.”

The difficulties they faced were way greater than the questions
themselves.

“We had to cope with jet lag, bad weather and an unexpected typhoon
that made us all sleep together in the hall,” On-yip said.

Yun-pui found it hard to maintain his level of concentration during
the exhausting 31/2 hours. “A candidate from China was sitting next
to me, and it gave me great pressure to see him complete the test so
quickly,” he said.

Jack Hui, on the other hand, was most frustrated by a question he
could not solve. “It was like being tripped over by a stone. I wasted
much time picking myself up,” he said. Nevertheless, they have gained
much more than just the medals.

Besides taking part in the competition, there were cultural events
where they exchanged ideas with fellow mathematicians. They played a
basketball game with some Armenians and had a long talk with their
China counterparts at the farewell party.

Poon Ming-fung, a second-time participant in the competition, learnt
to better manage his time in doing each question. Ming-fung, who was
one mark below the standard for a bronze medal last year, got a
silver this time. The seventh former said he would like to pursue his
career in the maths field and was keen to do actuarial science as his
JUPAS choice.

Among the 91 teams, China scored the highest overall marks, followed
by the United States and Russia.