Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Team Sri Lanka at the World Schools Debating Championship 2012

WSDC 2012 was held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 17th to 27th January. Team Sri Lanka performed very well at the championship, winning 5 of the 8 preliminary debates. The team beat Zimbabwe, Mongolia, UAE, Germany and Botswana, while suffering close losses to defending champions Singapore and South Korea, and a split loss to tournament heavy-weights Israel. However, the team fell one judge short of breaking into the octo-finals. The team ranked 19th based on wins and losses, and 15th based on speaker points, out of the 48 teams that participated.

The championship was also a success in terms of individual performances. Meghal Perera, Sanjit Dias and Tamara Fernando were ranked 3rd, 5th and 8th respectively on the "English as a Second Language" speaker tab, and 38th, 41st and 50th respectively on the overall speaker tab. This is the first time team Sri Lanka has had more than one member in the top 50 speaker tab.

The tournament was won by Scotland, who beat Wales 8-1, opposing the motion "This house regrets South Africa's decision to use the Truth and Reconciliation Commission rather than prosecuting perpetrators of crimes committed under Apartheid". Teoh Ren Jie of Team Singapore was crowned Best Speaker for the second time.

Our heartiest congratulations go out to the team and its coach, Ms. Sandaruwani de Silva for doing the country proud.