International Debate at Swinburne University 2016

Posted on by Sateria

By:
Muhammad Hanif b. Adzmir

From 22 to 25 February 2016, Swinburne University Of Technology held its 11th annual debating championship at its Kuching Campus. It has been the tradition for our college to send at least a team annually to compete in the championship. However, this year the Debating Union of Kolej Yayasan Saad sent a record 4 teams to participate in this event, 3 for the junior category and 1 for the senior category.

This year saw a total of 89 international teams from  Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines participating in this annual event. Among the participating schools were some schools unknown to us, such as SMK Kuching Utara (SAKURA), SM Batu Lintang and Sekolah Tun Fatimah. Knowing this made everyone from KYS nervous as most of us were new, so our team did not know the opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. With training sessions by senior and experienced debaters of KYS, it would be a challenge for us to emerge victorious in the finals.

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The eloquent KYS Debaters accompanied by their teachers

However, spirits were kept high among the young debaters, and winning was still the ultimate goal. After five preliminary rounds, Kolej Yayasan Saad managed to do remarkably well. Out of 4 teams, 2 teams managed to break into the pre-quarters and quarter finals. A team needs to be in the top 12 to break into the pre-quarters. The juniors – despite losing – made us all proud by securing a place in the finals, only to lose by a 5-2 margin to a more experienced and articulate team. The icing on the cake was that two of our junior team members, Kuhan Karttikeyn and Muiz Zafri won the Best Speaker awards for their respective groups. It is hoped that more training sessions will be held and conducted by a qualified debate coach in future tournaments so that we could improve ourselves, and our debate team would be glorious again as we once were .

The overall results are as follows:

JUNIORS:

  • Quarterfinals : KYS (C) vs. SM Lodge (D)
    Winner : KYS (C)
  • Semifinals :KYS (C) vs. SM Batu Lintang (C)
    Winner : KYS (C)
  • Finals – KYS (C) vs. SM Kuching Utara (H)
    Winner – SM Kuching Utara (H)

SENIORS:

  • Pre-quarters: KYS (A) vs. SM Lodge (B)
    Winner: KYS (A)
  • Quarterfinals: KYS (A) vs. University of Immaculate Conception, Philippines
    Winner: University of Immaculate Conception

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