MANILA - Three Filipino high school students raked in 3 bronze medals at the recently concluded 33rd International Olympiad for Informatics in Singapore, the Department of Science and Technology said Friday.

Vincent Dela Cruz, Raphael Dylan Dalida and Frederick Ivan Tan bagged for the Philippines the most medals in a year with their wins at the IOI, an annual global coding competition for secondary school students.

"The Philippine team bagged the most medals in a year despite the difficulties presented by the pandemic," its team leader Vernon Gutierrez said in a statement.

Dela Cruz, a 12th grader at the Valenzuela City School of Mathematics and Science, finished 92nd place out of the 351 competitors.

Dalida and Tan also took home bronze medals after ranking 119th and 136th places, respectively. Both are students of the Philippine Science High School – Main Campus.

The fourth member of the Philippine team, Saint Jude Catholic School 12th-grader Steven Reyes, finished at 216th place.

The IOI is one of several international science Olympiads held annually around the world. It was hosted by Singapore from June 19 to 25 and held online due to the pandemic.

According to its website, high school students from various countries compete in the prestigious algorithmic competition to sharpen their informatics skills, such as problem analysis, design of algorithms and data structures, programming, and testing.

“The IOI is a proving ground for some of the brightest upcoming minds who are in the best position to solve the world's problems," Marte Soliza, president of the National Olympiad in Informatics-Philippines, said in a statement.

"Apart from coding skills, contestants also need to think on their feet and find solutions to anything that's thrown at them," he added.

The NOI.PH put together and organized the Philippine contingent in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology's Science Education Institute.

Gutierrez and Solita hopes that the Philippines would continue its winning streak and looks forward to bringing in more participants as well as trainers and volunteers.

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