Meet Dante Lazarus, maths world champion
THE mental mathematics Super Champion of the World is a Durbanite.
Dante Andre Lazarus, 9, competed in the Global Association of Japanese Soroban and Mental Arithmetic (Gajsma) World Numeracy Competition in Dubai on Sunday and won.
The international competition drew hundreds of mathematicians from countries including Russia, Lebanon, India, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines.
However, the boy from Queensburgh clinched the title to become the Super Champion of the World.
After an onstage demonstration of his mental mathematics abilities, he won his second trophy and was dubbed the Best Performer at the competition.
During the competition, he was challenged to complete 30 four-digit by one-digit division sums, 30 double-digit by double-digit sums, and a mix of ten addition and subtraction sums that each comprised 12 double-digit numbers.
The total of 70 sums were expected to be completed in under 6-minutes.
Speaking about the win, Dante said: “I worked hard and am glad to have won, but I still can’t believe it. I don’t normally get nervous, but when the tests are hard, I get nervous about whether I answered correctly.”
This is not the first time he has achieved global success.
Last year, he won the same Gajsma World Numeracy Competition in Johannesburg.
The Grade 4 pupil has participated in two KwaZulu-Natal regional competitions, two South African National competitions, and two world competitions – and won all of them.
“I also won the first KZN Department of Education Mental Maths Cup.”
His ability to calculate sums is what his mother, Tracy-Lee, called a “gift from God”.
“The competition requires solving equations at high speed with a 100% accuracy using the Japanese Soroban Technique, which not every competitor is able to achieve.”
She said at last year’s world event, Dante was one of the few children to achieve the perfect score.
“As much as I would love to say he got his skills from me, I can’t take the credit.
“It boggles my mind. I can’t even begin to understand the process he uses to do it. He tried to show me a few times, but I get lost after a few words.”
The single mother said he acquired mental mathematical agility under the tutelage of Shaila Christian, his teacher from the Smart Mental Arithmetic School.
“To date, Dante has mastered the technique of quick calculations using the abacus as well as doing large calculations in his head.”
She said his success at the competitions over the past few years had not gone to his head or changed his character.
“He is still the same boy he has always been.”
She said while Dante enjoyed the competitions, he decided to retire from competitions.
“He needs to be able to do other things with his time and just be a child.
“This has been fantastic for him, but now he is getting older, and school work and other activities will need to take priority.”
Dante admitted that he would miss competing, but his skills would stay with him.
“I will always enjoy doing calculations, so even though I am not going to be competing, I am sure I will keep working on this.”