WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT RESULTS

ANU had one of the largest contingents at Macquarie women’s this year and we did very well. Julia Bowes admitted she was representing ANU, so I’m proud to announce we had the best speaker of the tournament. Other outstanding achievements include Steph Paton ranking as 6th best speaker, Rosie Bollard ranking as 15th and Michaela Flanigan as 20th. ANU1 (Steph Paton and Sonia) broke to semi finals. Farzaneh Edraki broke as an adjudicator, which is rather impressive seeing as it was her first time. So numerous were the ANU teams, we were frequently debating each other and we all noticed improvements from round 1 to 6. Some say ANU’s greatest success was when Jacqui Yates, Michaela Flanigan, Helen Jeong, along with some keen minds from USyd WON the trivia night. The girls were so clever that the only thing I could contribute was the maiden names of all the spice girls.   What the tournament sometimes lacked in food it made up for in fun. Women’s tournament tends to be the most friendly and pleasant smelling on the debating calendar and this year was no exception. Everyone is looking forward to USyd women’s in 2010 (a less suburban/industrial setting than 2009).

Congratulations to those who participated in the Australasian Championships in Melbourne over the holidays. Congratulations in particular to:

• ANU 1 (Claudia Newman-Martin, Matt Sherman, Sarah Lynch) who made it to the quarter finals.
• Rob Andersen, Zid Mancenido and Chanelle Carr-Janif, all three of whom broke as adjudicators. Zid and Chanelle adjudicated the ESL Grand Final.
• Claudia Newman-Martin, who ranked as the 2nd Best Speaker at the tournament (out of over 300 speakers, which included the very best debaters from the Australasian region).
• Matt Sherman who ranked 18th, and Sarah Lynch who ranked 22nd.
• All four of our teams. Our teams ranked 5th, 22nd, 33rd and 48th, respectively, out of 96 teams.

Congratulations also to everyone who went to Another Day at Melbourne over the first weekend of the holidays. We sent one of the largest contingents, of 5 teams and 3 adjudicators. Congratulations in particular go to:

• The team of Matt Sherman, Sarah Lynch and Daniel Higginbottom, who progressed to the quarter finals.
• Chanelle Carr-Janif, who adjudicated on the Grand Final panel.