Dagupan coed is Asia’s Sudoku champ

A 14-year-old coed from a school in Dagupan City bested math wizards from other parts of the Asia- Pacific region when she topped the international “sudoku” challenge held in Singapore over the weekend.

Sarah Jane Cua, a second year student at the Pangasinan Universal Institute, won first place and the S$10,000 cash prize in Brand’s Sudoku Challenge 2008 Asia Pacific Open held in Vivo City at the Harbourfront Walk from July 11 to 13.

Cua returned to Manila on Philippine Airlines flight PR 502 yesterday along with the entire Philippine delegation.

She was the second youngest participant in the contest participated in by a total of 50 students and young professionals from Thailand, China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Sudoku is a logic puzzle where the objective is to fill in a 9 X 9 grid so that every row, column and every 3 X 3 box (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits 1 to 9.

Cua’s victory was hailed by the Mathematics Trainers’ Guild-Philippines as proof that Filipino students can excel in mathematics given the proper training.

“Again, we have proven that Filipino students are bright and can compete in international competitions such as the Sudoku Challenge. We are very happy with the results,” said Dr. Simon Chua, MTG president and the first Filipino to receive the International Paul Erdos Award for mathematics.

Cua is one of several Filipino students trained and assisted by MTG to participate in the international Sudoku contest.

The MTG-Philippines is an organization of math experts and teachers in the country that trains and sends Filipino students to different mathematics competitions abroad including the United States.

Chua said that they are preparing for other international math competitions this year in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and India.

MTG earlier organized the Philippine Sudoku Super Challenge to select the country’s representatives to the Singapore Sudoku competition.

Aside from the 10,000 Singaporean dollar cash prize, Cua also won a trophy and a basket of goodies from Brand’s, a health supplement brand in Singapore which was the sponsor of the competition.

Cua was part of the Philippine delegation that competed in the American Regions Mathematics League held at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in May this year. –Rainier Allan Ronda, from The Philippine Star