Binus International Wins NUEDC 2011 (Revised)

((Corrections were made in third para due to a flaw in the official tab that was rectified after prizes were given. The clarification message from the adjudication core can be accessed via this link.))

Astrio Feligent/Christian Leonardo (photo from Rizal K)

The 2011 National Universities English Debating Championships main prize went to #2 Binus International (Astrio Feligent & Christian Leonardo) after the duo defeated #1 Institut Teknologi Bandung (Dito Krista & Rifan Ibnu Rahman), #3 Universitas Indonesia (Adlini Ilma Ghaisany & Roderick Sibarani) and #5 Universitas Bakrie (Ammar Syah Anwar & Aryo Febrian) in the final last night. This is Binus International's third win in 2011 following their victories at the ALSA Unpad E-Challenge in February and the UMM English Fiesta in May, making it the most successful debating society in Indonesia this year so far.

Astrio and Chris were also the core of the team that bagged the English Fiesta trophy, making them the only partnership with two wins in 2011. Known as BIPEDS, the debating society is a new powerhouse that only began to seriously compete three years ago. Their meteoric rise cannot be separated from the presence of coach Anna Alfaro Manurung, a former University of the Philippines debater who currently works as a lawyer in Jakarta. BIPEDS will hold Indonesia's most ambitious debating competition BIND next September, which will have lead judges of the coming World Universities Debating Championships in the adjudication core and debaters from all over Asia.

The 2011 NUEDC best speaker award went to Dito Krista from ITB following corrections that were made to the tabulation after the official announcement. Previously, two debaters with the same exact score, Adlini Ilma Ghaisany from UI, popularly known as Gesa, and Rifan Ibnu Rahman from ITB, received the top honour. The latest list put Gesa as the second best speaker while Rifan came fourth. Dito, placed fourth in the flawed tab, became the fourth ITB debater who topped the speaker tab of a national-scale debating competition this year, showing the depth of this engineering school's squad.

The best novice title went to Nurul Djannah and Sheila Koesin from STBA Teknokrat Lampung.