The first all-Qatari team will travel to South Africa to participate in the World Schools’ Debating Championship next month. From left: Saad al-Suwaidi, Hassan al-Mulla, Abdulla al-Emadi, Haya al-Thani and Nora al-Naemi
By Peter Townson/Staff Reporter

Qatar Debate has officially announced the members of Team Qatar to participate in the World Schools’ Debating Championships (WSDC) next month in South Africa, with this year’s group of students the first to represent an all-Qatari team at the international tournament.
Qatar has participated in four previous WSDC events, visiting the US, Greece and Scotland and also hosting a lavish and impressive tournament here in 2010.
Executive director of Qatar Debate, Hayat Maarafi explained that the decision to choose an all-Qatari team had been made in line with other participants who represent their own nations at the international tournament each year.
“It was an issue for us at first, but since the culture of debate has spread throughout Qatar, it has become much easier for us,” she said.
This year’s team is made up of five teenagers, Saad al-Suwaidi, 16, from Qatar Leadership Academy, Hassan al-Mulla, 16, from Khalifa Secondary School as well as Abdulla al-Emadi, 14, Haya al-Thani, 16 and Nora al-Naemi, 14, all from Doha College.For the past three months, the students have been preparing for the tournament, which will take place from January 17-27, by taking part in numerous workshops and training events.
The team’s first international coach arrived from Slovenia yesterday, and another coach is set to arrive in Doha in the near future, explained Maarafi.
Al-Suwaidi said: “We are looking forward to learning from other cultures and taking the opportunity to learn and improve.”
Teammate al-Naemi expressed her excitement at the prospect of taking part in the competition for the first time. “This is my first experience of debating, but I have learnt many skills and I am looking forward to using them in the competition.”
The youngsters explained that they had spoken to previous team members to find out about the WSDC experience, and that they are looking forward to representing their country at the tournament.
Al-Mulla explained that he had spoken to previous Team Qatar members to get some insight into the technical aspects of debating at the championships, and said they had inspired him with confidence for his own WSDC performance.“I have taken advice from them and I have improved my speaking and debating by speaking to those former team members,” he noted.
Al-Emadi spoke about how debating has helped to conquer his nerves associated with public speaking, and said that the whole team are looking forward to visiting South Africa.  Al-Thani added: “Through our training and preparation we hope we can do well and we will try our best - we hope we can make Qatar proud.”

Doha Debates  to focus on Bahrain
The next in the Doha Debates series  to be held today at the Georgetown University will tackle the issue of Bahrain. The motion will be: “This House has no confidence in Bahrain’s promise to reform.” Chaired by Tim Sebastian, the award-winning former BBC correspondent and interviewer, the debate will feature Bahraini and other speakers.

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