Math master performance not the end of the world

THE CHINESE DELEGATION ranked sixth in the Romanian Master of Mathematics competition, which finished in Bucharest on Feb 25. None of the six Chinese contestants got a gold medal. China Daily reporter Li Yang comments:

True, this is the worst result for a Chinese delegation in the annual international mathematics competition for pre-university level students.

Although it is necessary for the Chinese delegation to draw lessons from this year's competition, it is far-fetched, as some have done, to arrive at the conclusion that China lags behind in mathematics, just because of the performance of the six teenagers.