Six Vietnamese students have been placed ninth in the final rankings of the 53rd International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) after winning one gold, three silver and two bronze medals. The top winners are from the Republic of Korea with six golds, followed by those from the US with five golds and one silver and from China with five golds and one bronze. The Vietnamese team’s results were announced at the closing ceremony held in Mar del Plata, Argentina on July 15. The only gold medal went to 12th grader Dau Hai Dang from the Gifted School under the Hanoi National University of Education. The three silver medals were presented to 12th-grade students Nguyen Phuong Minh and Nguyen Ta Duy from the Gifted School under the Hanoi National University of Education and Nguyen Hung Tam from the Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted. The two bronze medals were bagged by 11th-grade students Tran Hoang Bao Linh from the Gifted School under the Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) and Le Quang Lam from the Lam Son-Thanh Hoa Gifted School. The Head of the Vietnamese team, Ass. Prof. and Dr. Vu Dinh Hoa, said the students had performed very well this time despite being suffering from a long journey from Vietnam to Argentina and the cold weather in the country. This was a prominent result compared to the six bronze medals won by Vietnamese students at the 2011 contest held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The IMO, the most important mathematical contest worldwide for high school students, was first held in Romania in1959. Many students, who triumphed at the event, have later become famous mathematicians, including Fields medalist Prof. Ngo Bao Chau. Vietnam first joined the IMO in 1974 and was twice placed 3rd in 1999 and 2007 with three golds and three silvers each time. The country hosted the event for the first time in 2007, drawing 520 students from 93 countries, the largest ever number at the time. The next IMO will be held in Colombia in 2013. VOV