"After China, the Russian team with four gold medals and one silver medal, Romania with three gold medals and two silver medals, and Iran with one gold medal and four silver medals ranked first to fourth in terms of individual and group points," Professor Rajip Singh Rawat said at the closing ceremony of the 54th International Physics Olympiad in Sheikh Bahai Hall of the Isfahan University of Technology on Sunday.
"This year, we saw a close competition between the top teams, and Iran's student team had a significant growth compared to the previous period when it was ranked 17th in the world, and one of Iran's silvers was won by a small margin compared to the gold," he added.
The participating teams were from Iran, Russia, China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Romania, Turkiye, Mexico, Georgia, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Croatia, Colombia, Belarus, Kuwait, and Vietnam.
Oman and Morocco took part as observers to get familiar with the international competition.
The first IPhO was held in Poland in 1967. With the number of countries, which joined the competition, increasing each year, the event encountered some problems during the 15 years afterward. However, since 1982, it has been held regularly every year, except in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
This is the second time that Isfahan hosts the IPhO. The last time the city held the event was in 2007.
Iran joined the IPhO 36 years ago, with its students snatching a significant number of medals over the years. This year, 5 Iranian students are taking part in the competition.
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