In one corner of a Sydney community centre, ear-muffed teenagers memorise shuffled cards in under 30 seconds. In another, children solve Rubik’s cubes so fast that their hands blur, while five-year-olds complete complex mental addition.

Hundreds of Mongolian Australian children gather to train each week at Arncliffe Youth Centre. They are learning mnemonic techniques and problem-solving skills to become mind champions.

For 14-year-old Alexandria Park Community School student Maral Oyunbat, who recently competed in Germany for the World Championships, the sport is a chance to travel. She is excellent at memorising numbers, and once memorised 1500 random numbers in an hour.

To do so, she uses memory techniques, linking each number to an image. She then uses these images to create a story,

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