Team Sri Lanka make great strides at WSDC 2010

courtesy of the debaters' council blog

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!