Monday, June 22, 2015

HFC Impromptus 2015

Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya organized the inaugural 'HFC Impromptu Debating Championship' on the 13th and 14th of June, 2015.

The competition saw 21 schools from 12 teams participate, and after 4 rounds of preliminary debates, the following teams broke through to the quarter final round:

1) Methodist College (A)
2) S. Thomas' College (A)
3) Ladies' College (B)
4) Methodist College (B)
5) S. Thomas' College (B)
6) Ananda College (A)
7) Royal College (A)
8) Visakha Vidyalaya (A)

In the quarter final round, S. Thomas' College B was the only team to cause an upset, breaking into the top of the table for the semi-finals by defeating Methodist College B.

The two Thomian teams were able to win their respective semi-final debates, and thus set up an all-Thomian final; the A team defeating Ladies' College B, and the B team upsetting Methodist College A.

In the Grand Final, the B team proposed the motion 'THBT criminals convicted of heinous crimes should be given the choice between death penalty and life imprisonment'.

The B team was represented by

Sebastian Sansoni
Kavindra Senaratne
Sasika Jayasuriya

and the A team comprised

Sharuka Wikramanayake
Chetan Perera
Anarga Peiris

The winning school was already a foregone conclusion, but the top-seeded A team came out on top, and thus became the first winners of the HFC Impromptus.

S. Thomas' College took away all the prizes, as Sharuka Wikramanayake was crowned Best Speaker of the championship.

Our congratulations to the winning team, and to all those who participated in this inaugural competition. Special commendation to the organizing committee, for a smoothly run competition that ran sharp on time. We hope to see this competition becoming a regular feature in the debating calendar, and to see it grow into a much larger tournament in the years to come.