PUSHING DEBATE TO THE LIMIT
Debate Tournament Semifinals and Finals, held at The Southern Cross School, Saturday 3 October
Team Captain, Catalina Latorre, holding the Travelling Trophy.
This year we once again had fifteen teams in the tournament. It bears repeating: all schools who participated can be very proud of their students, as they showed passion, commitment, intelligence, courage, and a considerable amount of healthy teamwork. The teams were: British Royal School, CPV International School Las Condes, Craighouse School, Dunalastair Las Condes, Dunalastair Peñalolén, The Grange School, Lincoln International Academy, The Mayflower School, The International School Nido de Águilas, Deutsche Schule Sankt Thomas Morus, Santiago College, SEK Pacífico, The Southern Cross School, Colegio del Verbo Divino and Villa María Academy.
Coming back to the semifinals, we entered them with our final four teams: British Royal School, Lincoln International Academy, Santiago College, and Verbo Divino. The last two were last year’s finalists, but Lincoln hadn’t been on the last day for more than ten years, and for British Royal School it was the first time ever! You can see the fixtures and results from our quarterfinals onwards in the picture below.
Special prizes were given to graduating students who’ve participated in the tournament for several years, in recognition of their commitment to debating. These were: Xen Castro and Elisa Poblete, from British Royal School; Andrés Espejo, Calina Latorre and Arthur Rosa from Lincoln International Academy; Martin Vera from Santiago College; and Alfonso Avendaño, Pedro Ihnen and Bernardo Shea from Verbo Divino.
Finally, a prize (a copy of James Joyce’s ‘Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man’) was given to Bernardo Shea, from Verbo Divino, in recognition as Best Speaker in the tournament. He received the highest average individual scores from our judges from Round 1 to the Final included.
Best Speaker 2026
WE WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND OUR THANKS:
To Ana María Tomassini, Ethel Melej and Alejandro Dagnino, members of the Debate Tournament Task Force, who ensure everything runs as smoothly as clockwork. And if it doesn’t, they know just how to stop and restart the watch!
To The Southern Cross School, who hosted us on the day, even when their team was not in competition on the day. It takes a special kind of grace to do so. Special thanks to Principal Shannon Watt, Emilio Lillo, Roger Raymond, Camila Essus, and all supporting staff (including little Bruno!)
To Francisca Bernales from Villa María Academy, Michelle Duggan from Santiago College, and the staff at Colegio del Verbo Divino for helping us and hosting the dates throughout the tournament. We are quite aware of the demands on time and effort it takes to host one of our dates, especially in the last few years with so many teams!
To our judges: Julieta Cárdenas, Cristóbal Clavijo, Montserrat Cordero, Sebastián Molina, Aurora Montes, Constanza Parra, Amanda Pérez, Nicholas Sanders and María Gracia Tocornal, without whom none of this could even approach the level of quality we have come to expect over the years. Calling all seniors 2026 to become judges next year!
OUR SEMIFINALISTS
