STAFF REPORTER
Southern suburbs pupils excelled in the recent Pan African Mathematics Olympiad (PAMO) in Senegal, where Team South Africa ended up as winners in both the overall competitions as well as PAMO-G (the competition for girls).
This year 45 contestants from eight African countries took part in the 24th instalment of the olympiad. The PAMO, which took place from April 23 to 30 is a mathematics olympiad catering for young African high school pupils.
Contestants wrote two tests consisting of three olympiad problems each: tough questions requiring insight, ingenuity and logical rigorous proofs. Teams from Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisia and South Africa took part in this year’s PAMO.
The girls also took part in the PAMO-G which is an Olympiad for girls that runs concurrently with the PAMO. Sang Eun Lee, of St George’s Grammar School in Mowbray, not only won the PAMO-G, but also won the overall competition and was crowned the “Queen of Mathematics” for the second year in a row.
Other winners from southern suburbs schools were Timothy Schlesinger (silver), of Rondebosch Boys’ High School; Hannah Clayton (silver) of Rustenburg Girls’ High School, and Rauseenah Upadhey (bronze) of Westerford High School. The team achieved this great success under the watchful eye of their team leaders, Liam Baker and Dylan Nelson.
Mr Baker described winning the PAMO as a great achievement for the South African team.
“The team did us proud and we are very honoured to have received all the medals. They have shown that hard work and determination is the key to success.
“The PAMO was well organised and the team members enjoyed the African experience,” he said.
