Bangladesh bags first gold in math Olympiad

An 18-year Chattogram boy has flown Bangladesh’s flag high by winning a gold medal for the first time at the 59th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in Romania.

Ahmed Zawad Chowdhury, a student of Cantonment English School and College, Chattogram, obtained 32 out of 42 marks to win the medal on Thursday, said AA Munir Hasan, general secretary of Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad Committee (BMOC) and also deputy leader of Bangladesh team.

As a team, Bangladesh secured the 41st place among 107 countries with three bronze medals and two 'honourable mentions'.

Joydeep Saha, Tamzid Morshed Rubab and Tahnik Noor Sameen, all from Notre Dame College won bronze medals each while Rahul Saha of Dhaka College and Showmitra Das from Faridpur’s Police Lines High School earned 'honourable mentions' for the Bangladesh team.

The Olympiad started on 3 July.

BMOC team coach Mahbubul Alam Majumdar and its deputy leader AA Munir Hasan are now staying with the six Bangladeshi competitors in Romania.

These six competitors were selected for the IMO from some 25,000 Bangladeshi students by the Regional Mathematical Olympiad-2018 held in 35 districts.

Prothom Alo arranged the math festivals sponsored by the Dutch-Bangla Bank for selecting six-strong Bangladesh team for the 59th IMO.