Romania won the first place in Europe at the International Math Olympics this year and 10th among 100 countries in the world. Two Romanians, Radu Bumbacea and Omer Cerrahoglu won gold medals at the 2012 Math Olympiad in Mar del Plata, Argentina, which took place between July 4 and 16.
The unofficial ranking after the competition placed Romania first in Europe, based on the number of points received by participants from each country. Koreans, Chinese and Americans took up the first places in the world, out of 584 contestants. Romania had a team of six at the Olympiad.
Romanians Octav Dragoi, Ioana Tamas and Stefan Ivanovici from the IT Highschool in Bucharest got silver medals, while Stefan Spataru in Bucharest got a bronze medal. Team Romania at the math Olympiad was coordinated by teacher Radu Gologan, himself a silver and bronze winner at the Math Olympiad in 1970 and 1971, who is now the president of the National Math Olympiad Commission and president of the Math Sciences Society.
As many as 12 Romanians have been included in the Math Olympiad hall of fame in the first 100 competitors, having received two or three gold medals and various silver and bronze awards: Ciprian Manolescu, Mihai Manea, Stefan Laurenþiu Horneþ, Teodor Bãnicã, Adrian Vasiu, Adrian-Ioan Zahariuc, Radu Bumbãcea, Ana Caraiani, Andrei Moroianu, Andrei-Bogdan Ungureanu, Dan Voiculescu, Omer Cerrahoglu.
