RIYADH: Saudi students have won six medals — a gold, a silver and four bronze — at the 19th Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad (JBMO 2015), securing the fifth place for the nation, as against 13th in its first participation in 2013.

Rinad Abu-Jamal from Makkah won the gold medal and Mohammed Ansari from Yanbu bagged the silver. Omar Jamal from Eastern Region, Asaad Abdul Rauf, Abdul Hamid Aldouby and Ziad Aljali, all from Makkah, won the bronze medals.

This year's JBMO was held in Serbia on June 24-29, with the participation of 106 contestants representing 18 countries, including France, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

According to King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity "Mawhiba", the achievements of Saudi students were the best for the Kingdom in such an international competition.

According to Mawhiba, Rinad is the first Saudi student to achieve a gold medal in an international competition of mathematics, in addition to her third place among 106 participants.

In May this year, Saudi Arabia went home with 11 medals at the 26th International Inventions and Innovations Exhibition "ITEX2015" held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Another team had won eight awards in scientific research at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF 2015) in the United States with 1,700 students competing from 75 countries

“Such an achievement confirms the great vision of the leadership of this country and reflects the need to invest in the national human resources, which represents social capital of the country” said Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Makkah governor and adviser to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

He said the young talent will help bring the country achieve new heights knowledge and development among the developed world.

The prince, who is also the vice president of Mawhiba, expressed his gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, saying that such achievement confirms the clear vision of King Salman, who has great scientific and visionary ideas.

He said this achievement was a result of continuous and fruitful cooperation with the Ministry of Education in collaboration with Mawhiba that seeks to create an appropriate atmosphere for “our gifted students”.