Sunday times article on Team Sri Lanka at WSDC 2010

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MCDS Sri Lanka Schools Debating Championships 2010

The 2010 edition of the MCDS Sri Lanka Schools Debating Championships was held on the 19th, 20th and 21st of February 2010. Around 60 teams registered for the tournament this year. The tournament was endorsed by the Debaters' Council.

After 5 strenous and highly competitive rounds of Debating the top 8 teams broke into the Quarter Final Rounds. The following are the results from hence

Quarter Finals
Wesley College A bt St. Joseph's College B
St. Joseph's College A bt D. S Senanayake College A
Royal College A bt Ladies' College A
S. Thomas' College A bt S. Thomas' College B

Semi Finals
Wesley College A bt S. Thomas' College A
Royal College A bt St. Joseph's College A

Finals
Wesley College A bt Royal College A

Vinura Ladduwahetty from S. Thomas' College A was adjudged the Best Speaker at the Tournament.

We congratulate Wesley College for winning the tournament for the first time and Royal College for their excellent performance to reach the Finals.

Wesley College A was represented by
Maleen Jayasuriya - Captain
Sithira Gunasekera
Chrisjit Xavier
?

Royal College A was represented by
Themal Ellawela
Viraga Perera
Wijewardena

Tamil and Sinhala competitions were also organized parallel to the English version. We thank the Moot Court and Debating Society of the University of Colombo for the hard work put in to make the competition a success.

Sunday times article - preview to WSDC 2010

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Team Sri Lanka make great strides at WSDC 2010

The 2010 edition of the World Schools Debating Championships was held in Doha, Qatar from the 8th to 19th of February. Sri Lanka was represented at the tournament by the following

Sandaruwani De Silva - Captain
Sanjit Dias
Maleen Jayasuriya
Pranjeevan Kulasingham
Kithmina Hewage

Coach - Mr. Deshan Pushparajah

The Debaters performed beyond expectations at the Championships winning 6 out of their 8 first rounds debates. The team beat tournament heavyweights South Africa as well as Lebanon, UAE, Malaysia, Japan and Phiippines.

As such, team Sri Lanka broke into the Octo Finals for the first time ever being ranked 11th out of 57 teams. Sri Lanka broke higher than other major teams such as Scotland, Ireland, Pakistan and South Africa.

Up against 6th place team Slovenia in the Octo final round proposing the motion, THBT that there should be no law restricting the freedom of speech, the team unfortunately lost on a 4-1 split.

Sri Lanka was also placed 3rd on the tab of English as a Second Language (ESL) countries.

Special commendation is due to Sandaruwani for being placed 48th in the overall speaker tab and Sanjit Dias who was placed 3rd best speaker in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) category.

Kudos to all concerned!

DC Maverick opens - Final results from the Convenor

Thank you again for your participation at the inaugural DC Maverick Open Singles tournament. We hope you had an enjoyable weekend and look forward to your feedback.

The final results are as follows

Kumaravadivel Guruparan - DC Maverick Champion
Shan Danthanarayana and Poornima Wijemanne - DC Maverick Finals Winning team
Damitha Karunarathne (Faculty of Law) - DC Maverick Champion Adjudicator
Raaliya Hussain (Methodist College) - DC MAverick Novices Champion

Congratulations to all who took part and the Mavericks!

DC Maverick opens - Rankings and Semi Final Update from the Convenor

Hi everyone,

Thank you again for your participation at this year’s DC Maverick tournament and congratulations for your excellent performance. For those who were unable to make it we had 65 participants in all with 22 breaking to the semi final round as debaters and adjudicators.

Under Rule 18 the Semi Final matches will be as follows (in italics are the partners picked by the top 14 and in brackets are the rankings from the Prelims):

SF 1:
OG Guru (1), Raneesha (17)
OO Luwie (3), Meghal (20 / Schools 4)
CG Sachintha (6), Sanduni (22)
CO Aruna (8), Deborah
Adj Kandasamy (9), Michael (11), Hafiz (13)

SF 2:
OG Visakha (2), Sasha (42)
OO Shamalie (4), Naomi (32)
CG Shan (5), Poornima (28)
CO Shanil (7), Enakshi (40)
Adj Damitha (10), Radheena (12), Shazna (15)

Considering we are still finding our feet with this tournament format we appreciate your patience yesterday. We also request any further feedback in order to refine the format considerably based on your experience.

Thanks again and hope you had fun!

Best regards,

Anisha Yasaratne
Co-Convener

Sorry for the delay

The Blogger wishes to apologize for the delay in bringing you the news as he has been otherwise occupied over the last month.

Our regret for any inconvenience caused in this regard

Sri Lanka Schools Team leave for Qatar - Hopes run high

The Sri Lanka Schools Team for 2010 will leave for Doha, Qatar on 8th of February to participate at the 21st edition of the World Schools Debating Championship. The 11 day tournament will consist of 8 first round debates after which the top 16 teams will break into the Octo Finals after which all rounds will be on knockout basis.

The World Schools Debating Championship is an international debating competition for secondary school students. Starting in 1988, the tournament has been held in seventeen different countries around the world, and has been the stage at which the best student debaters in the world exhibited their talents. Past patrons of the tournament include Nelson Mandela and Tony Blair.

The contingent representing Sri Lanka will be as follows

Sandaruwani De Silva (Capt) - Bishop's College
Sanjit Dias - S. Thomas' College
Maleen Jayasuriya - Wesley College
Pranjeevan Kulasingham - S. Thomas' College
Kithmina Hewage - Colombo International School

Coach - Mr. Deshan Pushparajah

Sandaruwani De Silva, the Captain of the team will represent the country for an unprecendented 4th year this time while the remainder of the team are promising freshers.

The team has been training for over 7 months now under many professional debaters and has also had the benefit of expertise from foreign coaches Ms. Jessica Prince and Mr. Alex Campbell.

Sri Lanka will aim to take the momentum of recent years into the tournament and become the surprise champions of the competition.

The country first participated at the tournament in 2005 and has improved in leaps and bounds over the years. The record of past tournaments is as follows.


2005 - Calgary, Canada
(Represented by the Royal College Team of 2005)

Ashan Walpita - Captain
Hafeel Farisz
Feroze Ahamed
Mahela Liyanage
Laknath Gunatilleke

Coach: Mr. Sajith Amendra

Record: 1 Win/ 7 losses/ 4 Adjudicators
Rank : 28th/31
Highest Ranked Sri Lankan speaker : N/A


2006 - Cardiff, Wales
(First National Team approved by the Ministry of Education)

Deshan Pushparajah (Captain) - S. Thomas' College
Romali Tudawe - Colombo International School
Deborah Phillip - Ladies' College
Thilini Perera - Ladies' College
Sachintha Dias - St. Joseph's College

Coach: Mr. Sajith Amendra

Record: 2 Wins/ 6 losses/ 8 Adjudicators
Rank: 27th/36
Highest Ranked Sri Lankan speaker - Deshan Pushparajah


2007 - Seoul, South Korea
(First team selected by the Debaters' Council - Approved by the Ministry of Education)

Sachintha Dias (Captain) - St. Joseph's College
Prawira Saldin - S. Thomas' College
Zahrah Cader - Asian International School
Themal Ellawela - Royal College
Sandaruwani De Silva - Bishop's College

Coaches: Mr. Sajith Amendra, Mr. Gehan Gunatilleke, Mr. Nishantha De Silva

Record: 3 Wins/ 5 losses
Rank: 24th/35
Highest Ranked Sri Lankan Speaker - Sachintha Dias


2008 - Washington DC, USA

David Rajasingham (Captain) - S. Thomas' College
Prawira Saldin - S. Thomas' College
Sandaruwani De Silva - Bishop's College
Tharindra Gunarathne - Ananda College

Coach: Mr. Deshan Pushparajah

Record: 4 Wins/ 4 losses/ 12 Adjudicators
Rank: 18th/39
Highest Ranked Sri Lankan Speaker - Prawira Saldin (50th in Global Speaker Ranking)


2009 - Athens, Greece

Prawira Saldin (Captain) - S. Thomas' College
Sandaruwani De Silva - Bishop's College
Themal Ellawela - Royal College
David Rajasingham - S. Thomas' College
Vinura Ladduwahetty - S. Thomas'College

Coaches - Mr. Sachintha Dias

Record: 4 Wins/ 4 losses/ 14 Adjudicators
Rank: 17th/39
Highest Ranked Sri Lankan Speaker - David Rajasingham (53rd in Global Speaker Ranking)


We wish Sandaruwani and her team all the best at the Championships.

The Inaugural DC Maverick - Open Singles!!

The Debaters' Council of Sri Lanka wishes to invite you for the Inaugural DC Maverick (Open Singles) - The DC's newest and most innovative venture yet- held on the 06th and 07th of February 2010 at the Law Faculty premises of the University of Colombo.

This tournament defers greatly from all past open tournaments organized and we assure you that things just keep getting spicier.

Ever wondered how it would be to judge a debate? Ever wondered how it would be to be judged by a school debater? Ever wonder how it would be if debaters started to judging adjudicators? Ever wonder how it would be to debate with a novice/guru? Well here's your chance to find answers to all your questions in a matter of a mere 2 days.

The DC Maverick will defer from standard tournaments in the following ways.

· Forget teams. All entries are on an individual basis. [Rule 1]
· Its all random. Positions in teams of 2 or as adjudicators are assigned randomly for BP style debates (4 teams per debate). Based on the draw you could either end up debating or judging. [Rules 3, 9]
· Everybody scores everybody. Even the debaters mark the judges based on their adjudication speech. [Rules 11]
· The best break and pick their partner. After 3 prelim rounds, the top 14 scorers break and may choose to pick a partner from outside the top 8 and debate, or to adjudicate. Teams are fixed from this point and go on to the Semi Finals and Grand Final. [Rules 13, 14, 16, 20]

The goals of the tournament are:

· opportunity for older debaters to debate instead of just judging
· opportunity for school debaters to debate with past gurus
· opportunity for school debaters to gain adjudication experience and also to get a chance to judge people who are constantly judging them
· a chance for experienced debaters to debate in teams/judge with newer debaters and possibly pass on some practical training
· to break the monotony of the same teams going around in the same tournament forma

Another spicy twist will be that the format of debate will be of the purest British Parliamentary style. Wondering what that is? It's a 4 team debate. Two proposition teams, two opposition teams. Don't know what that is? We'll teach you on opening day.

We encourage all member schools, universities and other past debaters to participate at this event as it will be a one of a kind experience to all participants concerned. Past debaters can have a great time reliving the 'old days', whilst School Debaters will gain much in the form of adjudication experience as well as debating with some of the best debaters in the country.

So please do join us this weekend for an opportunity to meet and debate with past and present debaters in an informal atmosphere. No hassle of finding team mates, just come along and we'll do the needful. If you wish to just come and watch, you're more than welcome. Even if you only want to heckle and make a nuisance of yourself, we'll be there to encourage you further.

There is however something slightly tedious you must do. You must register! We already have high demand for participation from debaters both past and present, but due to resource constraints we may not be able to accommodate all registrations. Hence please be kind enough to send in your registrations to Anisha at anishay@gmail.com by the 30th of January 2010 to avoid disappointment. Registrations need to include your name, age, institution (if applicable) and a short writeup detailing your past debating experience. You can also contact Anisha on 0777 268789 for further details about the tournament.

Please be there to support debating in Sri Lanka!

Video of the Grand Final Debate at WUDC 2010

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Sydney A wins WUDC 2010

University of Sydney A won the Grand Final of the World Universities Debating Championships 2010, held at Koc University, Turkey yesterday.

The draw for the Final of the 2010 World Universities Debating Championships was:

OG Harvard University A (Adam Chilton and Cormac Early)
OO London School of Economics (Art Ward and Rushabh Ranavat)
CG Oxford University A (Jonathan Leader Maynard and Shengwu Li)
CO University of Sydney A (Steve Hind and Chris Croke)

The Grand Final of the motion was: THB that the media should show the full horror of war

Shengwu Li was awarded the most outstanding speaker of the competition.

Moscow State Institute of International Relations A won the English as a Foreign Language competition, while Tel Aviv A won the English as a Second Language Competition.

De La Salle University in Manila won the right to host the 2012 tournament.


Courtesy: http://worlddebating.blogspot.com/

World Debating Website: WUDC 2010 Break details

World Debating Website: WUDC 2010 Break details

Wesley College WINS Inaugural Debaters' Council Schools League

The Grand Final of the Asian Alliance Insurance DC Schools League 2009 was held on the 15th of December at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH).

Attorney General, President's Counsel Mr. Mohan Peiris, graced the occasion at the Chief Guest, while Ms. Nadi Dharmasiri, AGM - Marketing at Asian Alliance Insurance PLC (the title sponsor of the tournament) graced the occasion as Guest of Honor.

The Final, between Wesley College and Bishop's College turned out to be a hotly contested affair with the debate being of the highest quality. The motion for the final was "This House Believes that 'Responsibility to Protect' should be the base principle of the modern United Nations." Bishop's College proposed the motion while Wesley College opposed.

The adjudicators considering both sides, decided on a 4-1 split in favor of Wesley College. Hence Wesley College became the CHAMPIONS of the League.

The adjudicators at the grand final were Mr. Mohammed Adamaly, Mr. Thushara Hettihamu, Mr. Anisha Yasaratne, Mr. Kumaravadivel Guruparan & Ms. Shamalie Jayatunga.

The two finalist teams were represented by

Wesley College
Maleen Jayasuriya (Captain)
Sithira Gunasekera
Chrisjit Xavier

Bishop's College
Sandaruwani De Silva (Captain)
Charuni Pathmeswaran
Wanya Gunawardena.

The following were the top speakers at the League (In Descending order)

Sandaruwani De Silva, Bishop's College - Most outstanding speaker
Yohan Senarath, Colombo International School
Michael Mendis, St. Joseph's College
Maleen Jayasuriya, Wesley College
Sanjit Dias, S. Thomas' College.

The event, the 1st major public event organized by the Debaters' Council on account of its now flagship tournament saw an attendance of over 100 students, teachers & well wishers from all over the country.

8 long months, 57 debates later. Wesley College has been crowned, the champion of champions in school level debating.

From the final rankings, Wesley College, Bishop's College, St. Joseph's College and S. Thomas' College will gain automatic qualification for The DC Schools League 2010, while the remaining schools will be relegated to qualify again at the Sri Lanka Schools Debating Championship 2010 to be held in February.

The Debaters' Council congratulates both finalists and all other participating teams for the high standard of debating displayed right throughout.

We wish to also thank Asian Alliance Insurance PLC for their support in this herculean effort

Preview to the Grand Final - Sunday Times article

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The Hindu - Colombo team victorious in debate hosted by National Law School

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AAIC DC Schools League Grand Final

The grand final of the AAIC DC Schools League 2009 will be held on the 15th of December at Committee Room E of the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) from 3.30 p. onwards.

Wesley College and Bishop's College will battle it out for supreme honors on this day.

All well wishers are welcome to attend this final.

Faculty of Law Dominates National Law School Tournament

The teams representing the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo at the largest Parliamentary Style Debating Tournament in South Asia, the National Law School Tournament held annually in India did the country proud recently by singlehandedly dominating the same.

The A team comprising of Shamalie Jayatunga, Luwie Ganeshadhason and Sachintha Dias defeated RVCE 'A' of Bangalore in the finals and their arch rivals Ramjas College of the University of Delhi in the Semi finals to win the tournament after a lapse of 3 years.

Shamalie was ranked the 3rd best speaker and Luwie and Sachintha the 7th and 4th best respectively.

Damitha was adjudged the best adjudicator at the tournament.

The C team comprising of Galusha, Sanduni and Shanil won the NLS Novices debating champiosnhip with Shanil becoming the best debater in that tournament.

Other teams from Sri Lanka at the tournament were the Arts Faculty of the University of Colombo and the University of Moratuwa.

We wish to congratulate the Faculty of Law for their excellent performance at the tournament.

Sunday Times article on the AAIC DC Schools League 2009

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AAIC DC Schools League - Final Points Tally

After 56 grueling debates over a period of 7 months, the following is the final tally of the inaugural Asian Alliance Insurance DC Schools League.

We congratulate all the Debaters for a job well done in the first rounds.

Wesley College & Bishop's College will battle it out in the Grand Final Debate. Details of the same will be made available soon.

Chief Adjudicator rules on Controversial Debate

The controversial debate between St. Joseph's College & S. Thomas' College which ended in a non-event recently was referred to the CA by the Convenor.

After considering submissions from both teams, the CA has ruled the debate to be a NO RESULT.

As such, there will be no wins and losses awarded to the two teams. The points up for grabs will be split in half.