Still on Top, Georgetown Is Named National and League Champions Two Years in a Row at Qf

For the second year in a row, the Georgetown Debating Union (GDU) at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) has once again dominated the debate circuit by winning the National and League Champion titles at the Qatar Universities National Debating Championship held on March 26, 2022 at Qatar University. Organized by QatarDebate (QD), a member of Qatar Foundation, the National Debating Championship event concludes the universities debate season for the 2021-2022 academic year.

The top performance of the tournament was from the GDU team of Pragyan Acharya (GU-Q’23) and Muhammad Saad Ullah (GU-Q’23) who bested Qatar University’s team for the National Champion title. They were one of two GDU teams that made it into the Grand Finals after three rounds of debate, setting them up for the final debate and marking an impressive finish for Alanoud Al Thani (GU-Q’24) and Maha Al Haroon (GU-Q’23).

“This win represents just one part of the rich legacy of excellence that we have here at Georgetown in Qatar: students strive to be the best at what they do and debating is no exception,” said Muhammad, who is now in his third year as member of the GDU and the second year as president. 

During the closing ceremony of the Nationals competition, their victory was followed by the announcement of GDU’s League win, an award given to the team that has garnered the most wins across the season’s three tournaments.

Pragyan, the team captain and lead organizer of training for the team, credited the team’s success to their dedication to constantly challenging themselves. “It is definitely our prior experience with training and tournaments that helped us win both the league and the national championship. It really feels good, and validates our team’s hard work and effort in preparing for every tournament.” Pragyan also remains undefeated, winning both the National Best Speaker Award and League Best Speaker Award for the second year in a row. 

Their university education plays a major role in their success, explained Muhammad. “GU-Q’s academic culture consistently contributes to our debating skills through the core curriculum. It fosters knowledge on a wide range of debate topic issues, from historical to political to economic. The culture of open discourse in Georgetown further encourages students to critically think about the ongoing dilemmas in the world.”

The majority of the GDU is made up of first-time debaters, many of whom came home with accolades for their performance. The QUDL Best Novice Speaker award was won by Gaebriel Joseph Olsen (GU-Q’25), with Georgetown students also clinching 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th place. According to Pragyan, the team dynamic is what makes the experience so rewarding. “Seeing them succeed makes me very happy, and it is through their success that the union succeeds too.”