A 13-year-old kid from Iloilo City has brought honor to the country again as he bagged the silver medal in an international math competition in Seoul, South Korea.
Gihun Ng Yoo, an incoming Grade 9 student from St. Joseph School Iloilo Inc., won the silver medal in the World Mathematics Invitational (WMI) at Yonsei University last July 15, 2023, after surviving the comprehensive competition participated by 1,275 students in 17 countries, including the United States of America, China, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Macau, and Iran, among others.
Gihun initially passed the elimination rounds of the contest which was held virtually for him to secure his place in the final rounds.
He then hurdled tough mathematical questions, including square roots, polynomials, linear functions, quadratic equations, word problems, math puzzles, logical reasoning, series, and sequences, and other prominent areas in the subject to win the silver medal.
Gihun, in a media interview, admitted that the competition was tough, noting that he did not expect to win the silver medal.
“I was expecting somewhere like Bronze, but I got silver so I was mostly surprised,” he said about his result.
Meanwhile, his coaches, Irish Mae Palomo and Albert Gumana, noted that Gihun came to school thrice a week for his review wherein they used reviewers from previous math competitions, as well as other resource materials similar to the contest, in order to prepare.
However, shortly before he left the country for the contest, Gihun contracted dengue fever and was under medication, but Gihon persisted to go despite his health condition.
“It was already planned and I didn’t want my preparations to go to waste,” Gihun stressed, who is the only learner from Iloilo who represented the Philippines in his level in South Korea.
Prior to this contest, Gihun also won several medals at the Asian Science and Mathematics Olympiad for Primary and Secondary Schools (ASMOPSS 12) in Bali, Indonesia last December 2022 and during the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad in April 2023.AL/JNH/PIA6 Iloilo
