Email from a friend

I received this email from a friend yesterday. Words cannot describe how touched I am by her email and how grateful I am to her, as she has shared my exact sentiments. Even if only 1 or 2 persons understand, it is good enough for us. Thanks J, if you are reading this and prefer me to remove this post, do let me know.

Hi Bee Yong,

Congrats to Lim Jeck for getting the gold medal for the Apho in Indonesia. He is truly talented in Maths, Physics and IT. And this has landed him in a happy dilemma now. Which to choose IMO or IPHO? 

My 2 cents worth is he should be allowed to go for BOTH.

Priority should go to IPHO because every Singaporean student has only 1 chance in their lifetime to participate in this competition and to forego it is such a waste. So Lim Jeck should attend the intensive training for Physics.

As for Maths, Lim Jeck is already a veteran (represented Singapore 4 times) and has undergone so many intensive trainings before. Therefore for this year Maths training he should be exempted. Even without training I believed that he can probably do as well as the other selected students representing Singapore. 

The selection team for the IMO should be flexible and not just stick to some policy without taking the full picture into consideration. Eg the recent XXX policy of favouring only their own students was such a farce because by sticking to their policy they did not select the best players to represent Singapore which is not correct.

In this case as defending champion, Lim Jeck should be accorded the privileges he deserved eg given a wild card direct entry without having to participate in any training at all.

Regards,

J

Afternote: On the evening of 15/5, SIMO informed me that Lim Jeck would be allowed to go for both IMO and IPhO (if he does qualify to be in the team after the selection test). He no longer has to make the tough decision of choosing only 1 international olympiad if he makes it into both national teams. :)