Ireland will be going for gold tomorrow when a team of young mathematicians travels to Mexico to take part in the International Mathematical Olympiad.
Bronze and silver medals have been won before but the goal is gold in this, the year we celebrate the great Irish mathematician, William Rowan Hamilton.
The team of six were selected from a much larger panel of students who attended "training" sessions at universities across the State over the past year, says NUI Maynooth mathematician and team coach, Gary McGuire.
"We give them some tests during the year and we use that to narrow it down to six people. Most of the students have just finished their Leaving Cert except one team member, Galin Ganchev who is a 14-year-old and originally from Bulgaria. It is very unusual for someone that young to be on the team."
The competition takes place from July 8th to 19th in Merida, Mexico, and there are about 80 countries participating, says McGuire. "We have sent a team since 1988 and the competition itself has been going for over 50 years."
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