Answer:
120 ways
Step-by-step explanation:
Here, we want to calculate the number of ways in which the ribbons can be awarded.
There are 6 competitors and there should only be one first position. What this means is that there are 6 possible ways to become first and 6 possible ways to clinch the gold ribbon.
Now, looking at the second position, since one person already claimed the first, there would be only 5 of the competitors jostling for the second position. This means that the number of ways they can claim the blue ribbon is 5 ways
For the fourth position, there are only 4 competitors wanting to claim the red ribbon. This is because we already have winners for the first and second position.
The number of ways this can be done is thus 4 ways
Now the total number of ways the ribbons can be awarded would be 6 * 5 * 4 = 120 ways