OLIVIA WOWS AT WORLDS

Year 12 student Olivia Stavrakis completed her participation at the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship (WIDPSC) in style, improving her world ranking by 7 places from last year’s online event, finishing 4th overall in World.

By Lynette Hawkey Head of Speech, Debating and External Public Speaking

Olivia claimed her place on the World stage by completing 2 rounds of four speaking events and selection to three from four finals. At the end of the rounds, Olivia was ranked 1st equal in readings (tied with US student Lily Pierce), 7th equal in persuasive, 17th in debate and 22nd in impromptu. Olivia took home a stunning African collectable ceramic Raku-fired figurine known as ‘The Dlamini’.

The 35th Annual World Championship took place in Durban South Africa between 26 March and 1 April 2023, hosted by Clifton Boys’ School. Billie Ronis and Eujiny Cho also competed in the competition with Billie also making the Readings finals.

A total of 108 competitors gathered from 16 countries for the first in-person event since 2019. The joy of reunion at an in-person fixture amongst the students was one of the highlights of the event. For our Year 12 students, this was a fitting way to draw their school representative speaking career to a close, as the South African trip was an educational and cultural experience of a lifetime.

We congratulate Olivia, Billie and Eujiny for being such excellent ambassadors for our school and maintaining our school’s record for excellence and consistency at this International event.