The Otago-Southland debating championships is the third biggest regional competition in the country, and ended fantastically for Columba this weekend.

Twenty-three teams from Invercargill, Dunedin and Central Otago competed in what was one of the most fierce regionals in years, across eight debates on a range of different motions. Students argued over the death penalty, immigration, globalisation and many other topics, finding out each motion just thirty minutes before the debate again.

To great excitement, the top two ranked teams to reach the semi-finals were Columba teams: Columba 1 (Abby Bowmar, Jody Syme, Isobel Fraser) and Columba 2 (Penelope Hare, Sophie Bowmar, Lara Seaton), with Columba 1 completely undefeated. In the semi-finals, Columba 1 beat Otago Girls 1 in a unanimous decision, while Columba 2 missed out to James Hargest 1 in a very close debate, having won 2 out of 5 ballots. 

For the final, Columba 1 argued against choosing immigrants via a random ballot. Despite a very strong James Hargest team, Columba 1 won the finals, becoming Otago-Southland’s regional champions.

As well as taking out the tournament, Columba won an unprecedented amount of awards. For the first time since 1988, all three of the Otago-Southland regional team members were from one school. The team, made up of Penelope Hare, Abby Bowmar and Isobel Fraser, will travel up to Wellington in May to debate representatives from across the rest of New Zealand.

Furthermore, 1st ranked speaker (Isobel Fraser), best style (Penelope Hare) and most promising speaker (Sophie Bowmar) all went to Columba debaters. A further congratulations to those with commended speaker awards (Jody Syme, Lara Seaton) and those who earned a place in development squads (Jody Syme, Lara Seaton, Sophie Bowmar, Angela Fu, Charlotte Werner) who stood out from some very strong competition.

A huge thank you goes to Ms Togneri, who gave her entire weekend to supporting us, and has been the driving force behind Columba’s enduring success. These amazing results are also thanks to the unparalleled debating club at our school, and I hope that girls can enjoy and thrive in the fantastic environment debating provides for years to come.

Abby Bowmar

Debating Captain