St. Joseph’s Academy win Hugh Catchpole English debate

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 26

St Joseph’s Academy lifted the coveted trophy of the 10th Hugh Catchpole Memorial English Debate competition that concluded at Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) here today. Eighteen school teams from across the country took part in the competition conducted in three rounds—preliminary, semifinal and final.

Top eight scoring teams made it to the semifinals and out of these only four qualified for the finals. The top four teams to qualify for the finals were St Joseph’s Academy, Dehradun; La Martinere College for Girls, Lucknow; La Martinere College for Boys, Lucknow; and The Doon School, Dehradun.

The final round of the debate was conducted at the Thimayya Auditorium and Major Gen Shammi Sabarwal, who is an alumnus of the RIMC, was the chief guest. The debate was conducted on the modified Cambridge pattern. Sudhir Arora, Sunita Vijay and Lt Col MK Lenka were the judges for the final round. The team of St Joseph’s Academy, Dehradun, comprising Kanishk Kakar, Ksitij Bisht and Dhananjay Khanna was declared the overall winner of the debate. The Doon School, Dehradun, team comprising Arth Gupta, Devansh Agarwal and Krishna Lohiya was runnerup.

Kshitij Bisht from St Joseph’s Academy was declared the best speaker of the preliminary round while Aarnav Sharma from St George’s College, Mussoorie, was the best speaker of the semifinal round. Devansh Agarwal from The Doon School was adjudged the second best speaker of the final round while Kanishk Kakar from St Joseph’s Academy was given the best speaker award. The Commandant Special Prize was won by Aishwarya from La Martinere College for Girls, Lucknow. At the end of the debate, Major Gen Shammi Sabarwal, GOC, Uttarakhand Sub Area, motivated the students to further enhance their debating skills. He congratulated the winning team.