Yeray Alcalá, 2nd year Bachillerato student, and Eneko Rupp, 1st year student, have come second and third respectively in the Basque Country Mathematics Olympics 2024 held in Leioa (at the UPV) last January, the results of which have been published today.

After a seven-hour exam, solving six problems, and competing with around 100 students, Yeray and Eneko have secured their place in the national final of the “LX Olimpiada Matemática Española”. This final will be held in Calatayud from 14 to 17 March, and only the 77 best mathematics students from all over the country have managed to qualify. Now, their dream is to be among the top six to compete in the international final in Bath, UK, from 11 to 22 July.

The Mathematical Olympiads are competitions between young students, whose primary objective is to stimulate the study of Mathematics and the development of young talents in this Science. They are more than just a competition. On the one hand, they serve to promote mathematics and give it a fun content which, unfortunately, it has almost completely lost for a variety of reasons, for example, the confusion between exercises and problems, with the consequent disappearance of the latter.

Each Autonomous Community or University District, qualifies the exercises of the test and proposes the winners of the first phase, in a maximum number of three for each public University existing in the Autonomous Community or University District. In the case of the Basque Country, two of the three selected were Yeray and Eneko.

The Spanish Mathematical Olympics is organised by the Real Sociedad Matemática Española (RSME), and since its beginnings, it has had the collaboration of all the Public Universities and the Ministry of Education.