Australs Results 2007 (involving WSDC alumni)

At the recent Australasian Intervarsity Debating Champonships ("Australs"), held at the Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, concurrently with WSDC in Seoul, there were some notable performances by WSDC alumni:

Runners-up: Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Sayeqa Islam (WSDC 1999 for New Zealand) - best speaker on tab and in the Grand Final
Christopher Bishop (WSDC 2001, 2002 for New Zealand) - 8th on tab
Stephen Whittington (WSDC 2005 for New Zealand) - 17th on tab

Sienna Merope (WSDC 2005 for Australia) reached the quarter-finals in the Melbourne University 2 team

Tim Mooney (WSDC 2005 for Australia) ranked 11th on the tab for Sydney University 1
Steve Hind (WSDC 2005 for Australia) ranked 22nd on the tab for Sydney University 1

"Australs" is the world's second largest debating tournament and equal in prestige to the World Universities Debating Championships. Australs is considered by some to be the most intellectually demanding in the world, and is recognized for its high standards of debating and adjudicating. Debaters have half an hour to prepare a case on topics ranging from regional politics, international economic policy, sport, culture, religion and philosophy.

The competition attracts a large number of ex-WSDC debaters from the Asia-Pacific region and involves over 300 competitors. Accordingly, potential coaches, adjudicators and organising committee members for WSDC come from the Australs ranks and it is therefore a good idea, especially if WSDC is being held in the Asia-Pacific region, not to schedule it at the same time as Australs (usually the first to second weeks of July.) For the next two years, that will not be a problem as WSDC in Washington DC 2008 will be held in September and WSDC in Athens 2009 will be held in February.

However, for everyone's information, Australs 2008 will be held in Manila, the Philipines, between the 3rd and 11th of July 2008 and they've already launched their website!

The website for Australs 2007 can be found at http://www.australs2007.com/ and that for 2008 at http://www.ateneoaustrals.com/