Best NZ result at the International Mathematical Olympiad

The Department of Mathematics at The University of Auckland and NZ Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (NZIMA) are delighted to have assisted six secondary school students to the best ever result for NZ in the 51st International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) held in Kazakhstan last month.
The students, who competed as individuals in a field of almost 600 students from 98 countries, all came home with medals and their combined scores saw NZ ranked 29th overall.
“It is unprecedented for all of our students to receive medals and for our team to be ranked so highly, and we’re delighted to have helped the team prepare so well for this prestigious event,” says Emeritus Prof. Ivan Reilly from the university, who chairs the NZ Mathematical Olympiad Committee (NZMOC), and has been involved with the competition in that capacity for 25 years.
The competition asks students to solve six extremely challenging questions in geometry, algebra, number theory and combinatorics, in two examinations of more than four hours on successive days.
Gold medals are awarded to students whose individual scores are amongst the top one-twelfth of competitors, silver medals to the next one-sixth, and bronze medals to the next one-quarter of participants. 
All of the NZ students received medals this year, with Malcolm Granville and Tom Yan of Auckland Grammar School receiving silver medals, and bronze medals going to Stephen MacKereth of King’s College in Auckland, Yuan (Edward) Wang of Hillcrest High School in Hamilton, Sicong Zhang from Auckland International College, and Robert Zhang from Auckland Grammar School.
Every year in January the NZMOC holds a week-long training camp in Christchurch for students from around the country who have done well in a series of online problems.
A squad of up to twelve students are selected for further training, and in late April the names of the six students who will make up the NZ team are announced.
Further preparation occurs in the weeks leading up to the competition, and this year, because all of the students came from Auckland or Hamilton, it was possible for the entire group to study together at the university, during weekends.
A final training camp, supported by the Faculty of Science, is held in the final days before the IMO competition begins.
This year the main tutors included university post doctoral fellow Yuri Vyatkin, graduate students Anastasia Zaytseva and Ilya Chevyrev, and Associate Prof. Arkadii Slinko who has had a long involvement with the competition. Russian-speaking Ilya attended the IMO as Deputy Leader of the NZ team.
For the past six years NZIMA, a Centre of Research Excellence, has been the major sponsor of NZMOC activities, helping students to prepare for and attend the event.
Prof. Reilly considers that the opportunity for the team to study together was a major contributor to their success in the competition, allowing them to receive more comprehensive preparation than in previous years.