South Korea retained the top spot in the global students’ competition in physics on Monday, following a clean sweep of gold medals in mathematics a day earlier.

All five members of the Korean team – high school seniors and sophomores – bagged gold medals at the 48th International Physics Olympiad held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on July 16-24, handling South Korea the year’s championship.


This is the second year in a row that South Korea ranked first in the annual competition. This year, it shared the top spot with China, Singapore and Russia.

The victory came at the heels of a similar win by six South Korean teens in the 58th International Mathematical Olympiad held in Rio de Janeiro on July 12-23.

The Korean team of six won a combined 170 points, out of a possible 252, excelling the second-ranked China by 11 points. South Korea last won the championship in 2012. It finished second last year.

The Olympiad competitions take place in various areas of science.

This year, 45 Korean students are competing in eight fields, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, informatics, biology, astronomy, earth science and junior science.

By Bak Se-hwan (sh@heraldcorp.co)