Saudi Arabia Secures Six Medals at Junior Balkan Informatics Olympiad
The Saudi Informatics Team won six international medals at the 19th Junior Balkan Olympiad in Informatics in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with all six members earning a medal in the Kingdom’s first official participation in the competition.
The students brought home four silver and two bronze medals at the event, which gathered about 90 participants from 13 countries, including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Türkiye, Ukraine, the UK and host Bosnia and Herzegovina. Silver medals went to Fares Yasser Al-Radadi of the General Administration of Education in Madinah, Hashem Ibrahim Basyouni of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, and Riyadh-based students Ahmed Mohammed Al-Hussein and Eyad Emad Al-Khalifa, while bronze medals went to Mohammed Abdulkhaleq Al-Battat of the Eastern Region Education Department and Al-Reem Ali Al-Mutawa of the Al-Ahsa Education Department. The Saudi Press Agency reported the results as a 100 percent medal success rate for the delegation.
The result adds to a strong year for Saudi informatics students. In September, the team won four awards at the 33rd Balkan Olympiad in Informatics in Tirana, Albania, including the Kingdom’s first silver medal in that competition, along with two bronze medals and a certificate of appreciation, bringing its overall tally at that event to 17 awards across four participations. In August, the team took three awards at the 38th International Olympiad in Informatics in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where Mohammed Nasser Al-Asmari won the Kingdom’s first silver medal in the competition’s history, Sultan Abdulrahman Al-Aiban earned bronze, and Saad Bandar Al-Arifi received a certificate of appreciation, raising Saudi Arabia’s total in that competition to 14 international awards.
The students underwent an extensive preparation and qualification process through the Mawhiba International Olympiad Program, which included specialized training camps, selection competitions and simulation contests designed to sharpen problem-solving and algorithmic thinking, a journey that can span two to four years before students compete at regional and international levels.
The program is run by the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, known as Mawhiba, in partnership with the Ministry of Education. The nonprofit works to identify, nurture and support gifted students in Saudi Arabia, offering programs in talent identification, academic enrichment, research and specialized preparation for international scientific competitions. In 2025, more than 31,000 students took part in Mawhiba programs, with over 14,000 enrolled in academic and research initiatives, and the foundation reported that Saudi gifted students won 129 international awards across 26 Olympiads and the International Science and Engineering Fair that year.
The Junior Balkan Olympiad in Informatics is an annual competition focused on programming and algorithms for younger students, launched in 2007 in Belgrade, Serbia, bringing together talented students from Balkan countries and invited participants from beyond the region to build skills in computer science, logical thinking and problem-solving.
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