A team of students from Istanbul High School have won five awards at the "58th International Mathematical Olympiad" held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Istanbul High School students, who were part of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) National Mathematical Olympiad Team, made their mark on this year's event attended by more than 600 students from 111 countries.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), school principal Hikmet Konar congratulated the students for their great efforts and said that the school's Olympiad oriented activities were pivotal to their success.

"This is the first instance a state school has attained such success. We could achieve this result thanks to the great efforts of our teachers and the support from the Provincial Directorate of National Education. This is a great achievement. It required some serious effort and discipline. Our students sacrificed their private lives for the sake of the competition and did extra work out of the school schedule," the principal said.

Senior high school student and silver medal winner Can Çiçek said he has been preparing for the Mathematical Olympiads for almost seven years and stressed that he received great support from the science team mentors and his family throughout this process.

"This success is the result of six or seven years of continuous effort. I have come across so many different challenges during this whole process. I want to continue representing my country on the international stage," Çiçek said.

Meanwhile, bronze medal winner senior high school student Nurullah Giray Kuru said they were given six mathematic problems at the two-day Olympiad.

Kuru pointed out that six to seven years training was required to be able to solve the questions and added: "Even if you are capable of solving those questions, everything can change in a while when the actual contest starts. I worked really hard to represent the Turkish flag. Next year I want to claim the gold medal."

The winner of an honorable mention, Mehmet Selahattin Şentop said the preparation for the Olympiad was very difficult but the team was determined in the result of eliminations conducted by TÜBİTAK. Like Kuru, Şentop is also aiming for the gold medal next year.

The winner of the other honorable mention award, Ahmet Alper Özüdoğru said he was planning to improve his score in the next Olympiad.