There will be no team from Australia in the final debate of the 2011 Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships -- just like last year. Reigning champion #4 Victoria University of Wellington 1 from New Zealand today will defend their title against #6 National University of Singapore 1, which won the top 3-on-3 Asian debating contest last May.
Since 1975, whenever a non-Australian team won the Australs, debaters from the Land Down Under would take the trophy back the next year. In fact, from 1983 to 2010, Victoria was the only non-Australian institution that became champions of the top debating tournament in the Asia-Oceania region. And they only could that twice. Besides last year, Victoria also won in 1998.
From the beginning, Australians showed they were keen to dominate Australs 2011 as they arrived in Seoul as the biggest contingent -- more than a quarter of the 113 participating squads. University of Sydney sent 7 teams and all of them managed to slip into the top 24 but only 4 could break due to the institutional cap rule. Monash University 1 topped the tab after 8 preliminary rounds and Sydney 1 came second. However, Victoria 1 and NUS 1 ruined the script after they eliminated Monash 1 and Sydney 1, respectively, in the semifinals earlier today.
Victoria 1 is led by Udayan Mukherjee who was on last year's winning team. His two partners are Seb Templeton and Richard D'Ath who reached the semifinals of Australs 2010 as Victoria 2.
NUS 1 (Imran Rahim, Sadhana Rai, Robin Teo) may make another historical milestone if they can take the crown. No team from outside Australia and New Zealand has won the Australs. The final will take place at South Korea's National Assembly, which is also the venue for the debate to grab the ESL title between Universitas Indonesia and University of Hong Kong.
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