I have the privilege of informing the school community of the success of our QAHS Debaters in the 2026 Gold Coast Debating Competition this year. We congratulate all 43 Debating students for their commitment to representing QAHS throughout the Preliminary Rounds of the Gold Coast Debating Competition and draw particular attention to team members from the 3 Intermediate B and 1 Open B teams, all of whom were new to debating this year. I look forward to their continued participation in Debating, next year.
Although 4 QAHS Debating teams narrowly missed out on qualifying for the knock-out Debating Finals, 5 QAHS Debating teams qualified for the Finals series which commenced in Term 3 – yet another outstanding achievement by QAHS Debaters in 2026, collectively.
The standard of debates in the Finals series is always high, and 2026 has been no exception. Nevertheless, 2 QAHS Debating teams reached the Semi-Final in their debating division where they faced intense competition and both were narrowly defeated.
Our congratulations go to the following QAHS Debating teams and students that were narrowly defeated in the Quarter Finals
Int B QHS 3
Aichen He, Tiffany Mo, Sairam Panchumarthi, Brandon Tan, Veer Upnal
Int A QHS 2
Poppy Jones, Minseo Kim, Abhay Manjesh, Allana Oh, Ella Wei
Open B QHS 1
Sofie Sim, Xixi Wang, Chelsea Sombilon
Our congratulations go to the following QAHS Debating teams and students that were narrowly defeated in the Semi Finals.
Int B QHS 2
Noor Burhan, Aarav Chawla, Afya Shaffi
Open A QHS 1
Maria Narizhnaya, Pranav Shanmugasundaram, Adriana Smith, John Wang, Timothy Wissa
Congratulations, 2026 debating teams on your achievements in the Gold Coast Debating Competition knock out rounds this year! I look forward to the continuing participation of our current Year 10 and 11 Debaters as they progress to Years 11 and 12 respectively, in 2027, and to welcoming our new Year 10 QAHS students to our thriving Debating cohort.
Kim O'Shea
Debating Coordinator