Calculators Ready: The Israeli team departing for the 2013 International Mathematics Olympiad in Colombia. Image by Haaretz

Israel achieved an unprecedented advance in the International Mathematical Olympiad on Saturday, rising from 53rd place three years ago to 13th in the world.

In the competition in Colombia, the Israeli team won six medals – one gold, three silver and two bronze – capping a leap of 18 places since last year.

The gold-medal winner, 16-year-old Omri Nisan Solan from Herzliya, came in fifth place worldwide out of the 600 contestants who took part in the Olympiad, which included contestants from 103 countries.

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Other medalists are Amotz Oppenheim, an 11th-grader at Shevah Mofet High School in Ramat Gan, as well as Tom Kalvari, a 12th-grader at Hakfar Hayarok High School in Ramat Hasharon, and Nitzan Tur, a 11th-grader at Alliance High School in Haifa, who won silver medals. The winners of the bronze medal were Yoav Kraus, a 12th-grader at Efraim Katzir High School in Holon, and Ofer Grossman, an Israeli citizen who recently moved to the United States.

Education Minister Shay Piron congratulated the team. “This is an occasion for national pride,” he said in a statement. “The students who represented Israel in the Olympiads in the sciences, who brought this amazing accomplishment to the State of Israel, are one of the keys to our existence here. I see this victory as a matter of great national importance. We will continue investing in our young people and encouraging them to desire excellence, dream of it, and strive for it to make our achievements in the future even greater.”

Read more at Haaretz.com

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