RIYADH: The Saudi team won four awards at the 2023 International Biology Olympiad held in Al Ain, the UAE, from July 3-11.

The 34th edition of the competition, sponsored by the UN Environment Fund, saw the participation of 320 students from 80 countries.

Yazan Al-Maghribi, a student in his third year of secondary school in Jeddah, won the silver medal after completing 3,800 hours of training with Saudi and foreign experts at the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, also known as Mawhiba.

Winning bronze medals were Nawaf Al-Mutair, Raed Talbah and Ali Al-Khalifa, from the Eastern Province.

Amal Al-Hazzaa, secretary-general of Mawhiba, attributed the “brilliance and achievement of the students” to the efforts of the Saudi leadership, which works toward cultivating national talent to compete globally in science and math.

Al-Hazzaa expressed her gratitude to Yousef Al-Benyan, the minister of education, for his support of the Mawhiba foundation and its programs in discovering and empowering Saudi students.

The International Biology Olympiad targets secondary school students worldwide in the field of biology and is held annually in July for 10 days. Every year, a country is chosen to host the competition and is asked to prepare theoretical and practical questions to test students’ skills in solving biology-related questions.