Gateway wins Inter-International School Debating Championship

The 3rd annual Inter-International School Debating Championship, organized by the Debating Society of Stafford International School, was held on the 7th and 8th of March, 2015. This event has become a regular feature on the debating calendar, and has been responsible for drawing new schools into the local debating circuit. This year's competition saw Amal International School make their debut, and Overseas School of Colombo make a return among the 16 teams that participated.

After four preliminary rounds of debate, the following teams broke through to the quarter finals:

1) Colombo International School (A)
2) Lyceum International School Wattala (B)
3) Lyceum International School Wattala (A)
4) Gateway College Colombo
5) British School in Colombo (A)
6) Colombo International School (B)
7) Lyceum International School Nugegoda (A)
8) Daybridge International School (A)

The quarter finals saw one major upset, as both teams of defending champions Colombo International School were knocked out, CIS (A) losing to Daybridge (A). The other seeds did not yield any upsets.

At the semi-finals, the (A) team of Lyceum Wattala beat out their own (B), while Gateway beat Daybridge to book their berth in the Grand Final.

At the Grand Final, Lyceum Wattala proposed the motion, 'In a criminal trial, this house would allow the aggrieved party to choose the sentence.' They were represented by

Danidhu Withanawasam
Sandeepa Fernando
Devin Randika

while Gateway College comprised

Dayan Surendranathan
Pramuk Kodithuwakku
Hasitha Jayatileke

After a closely contested final, the five-member panel of adjudicators was split 3-2, with Gateway College being awarded the win, and their first title.

Eran Fernando of Colombo International School was adjudged Best Speaker of the competition.

Our congratulations to the winners, and to the organizers for a smoothly run tournament. We hope to see this competition grow in its scale in years to come.