All members of the Vietnamese team earned six medals, including one gold, at the 53rd International Mathematical Olympiad (IOM) organized between July 4 and 16 in Argentina, the Ministry of Education and Training said Monday.

The gold was presented to Dau Hai Dang, a 12th-grader at a specialized high school under the Hanoi University of Education, while three silvers went to Dang’s two schoolmates and another 12th-grader at Hanoi-Amsterdam Specialized High School.

The other two bronzes were collected by a 11th-grader at a specialized high school managed by the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City and a 12th-grader at Lam Son Specialized High School in the central province of Thanh Hoa.

Vietnam stood at number 9 in the final rankings composed of 100 countries and territories thanks to these prizes.

This is a big improvement compared to last year’s competition in the Netherlands where the Southeast Asian nation ranked 31 out of 101 participants with 6 bronze medals, its worst ever result in 36 years of competing.

Annually held in a different country, IMO is the most important international math contest for pre-collegiate students. The 2012 edition, hosted by Mar del Plata, a city 400 km south of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, was attended by 548 contestants.

Many Vietnamese students who once bagged IMO medals have become outstanding mathematicians since 1974 when Vietnam first joined the competition.

Most prominent of all is Professor Ngo Bao Chau who won the Fields Medal, often dubbed the Nobel Prize of mathematics, in 2010.

In related news, Vietnam also secured 4 medals, including 1 silver and 3 bronzes, at the 23rd International Biology Olympiad that closed Sunday in Singapore.