Team Indonesia lost all two of their matches on Day 3 of the
2013 World Schools Debating Championships in Turkey, a competition that has become swooned by the fairytale campaign of Swaziland, a small African nation whose debaters have won all bar one of their rounds. Tomorrow is the last day for the preliminaries with R7 and R8.
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| Swaziland - WSDC 2013's cinderella |
Indonesia's two losses came from split decisions that went in favour of their opponents - Romania in R5 and United Arab Emirates in R6. At the moment, Indonesia's scorecard is 3-3 with 2 rounds to go. Indonesia will meet Malaysia tomorrow morning and host Turkey in the afternoon. Both teams have higher ranks but pulling off an upset is very possible. Our debaters did it in R1 against Greece and have the ability to repeat that feat. The members of this year's team are Carrisa Tehputri and Ida Ayu Pradnya Paramita from SMA 4 Denpasar, Adeline Tiffanie from SMA Kristen 1 Jakarta and Sayyid Habibullah from SMA 3 Pontianak.
The major upsets of the tournament came from a team from Swaziland, a country that only joined WSDC last year when they ended with a respectable 4-4 tally. They are now almost certain to break. Debaters of this tiny state have won 5 out of their 6 matches, only losing to 2011 champion Singapore on a 2-1 split decision in the first round. There was no more slip from there on. In the next round, they crushed Lebanon. Yesterday, they knocked down Slovakia and then embarrased reigning champion Scotland through convincing 3-0 wins. Today, they outclassed Israel and China. Tomorrow, they face Baltic states Estonia and Lithuania.
Here's wishing Team Indonesia all the best for R7 and R8. Those ballots in R5 and R6 could still come in handy...
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am not at all surprised by Swaziland's success this year. Last year they showed they had the finesse, swagger, and smarts to stand up to the traditional powerhouses. Swaziland vs. Lithuania will be the battle of the surprise packages from Cape Town.