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Sunway debaters win over favourites

22 April 2009

Imrah Reyaz, Kenneth Mapanga and Ms Abeer Yusuf Sayed with Sunway campus Pro Vice-Chancellor and President (Malaysia) Professor Robin Pollard.
Imrah Reyaz, Kenneth Mapanga and Ms Abeer Yusuf Sayed with Sunway campus Pro Vice-Chancellor and President (Malaysia) Professor Robin Pollard.

Three students from Monash University's Sunway campus in Malaysia have taken out Malaysia's largest debating competition in their first competitive debate.

Not only was it a come-from-behind win, the team also beat the competition favourites the University of Nottingham, Malaysia.

The National Novice Debate Championship 2009, organised by the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), brought together more than 70 teams from 31 institutions.

Monash sent a team of four debaters and four adjudicators to the competition, which was held at UiTM's campus in Shah Alam.

The three winning debaters - Imrah Reyaz, Abeer Yusuf Sayed and Kenneth Mapanga along with reserve debater Daniela Andrea Chaerry-Chavez were pleased to have done well in their first debate outing.

Abeer Yusuf Sayed, a second year Arts student from India, said the team's story was one of comeback.

"Our entry into the finals was made possible by a decision to pitch the top 16 teams in knock-out rounds," she said.

"At that point, we had won three debates and lost two.

"Things started to look brighter for us when we defeated the University of Nottingham who had been undefeated up until that point."

In the finals the team took on debaters from the UiTM with the judges unanimously in favour of Monash.

They team will now focus on their role in the newly-created Monash Sunway Association of Debaters.