Rabat – Moroccan student Saad Lahrichi from Duke University and his team won the third edition of the US Universities Arabic Debating Championship (USADC), organized by Qatar Debate.
The recently-formed Duke Arabic Debate Team, coached by Professor Maha Houssami, consists of experienced debaters such as Danah Younis, Class of 2022, and the team captain Majed Al Munefi, Class of 2024, who ranked third in the USADC and 7th in International Universities Debating Championship (IUDC).
Last year, the two members reached the semi-finals of the USADC in Chicago and the quarter-finals of the IUDC in Istanbul.
Along with the experienced members, the team is also composed of Moroccan debater Saad Lahrichi, Class of 2023, and Zeinab Mukhtar, Class of 2025.
The two new members helped the team win against the Islamic University of Minnesota, Texas Tech University, Connecticut College, and Stanford University. They also came victorious against Yale University in the semi-finals and Harvard University in the final.
The team was announced as the 2022 US Champion on October 16th at Stanford University in the presence of over 200 students from 38 prestigious US universities.
“We are all very proud of this achievement first due to the scale of the event,” Lahrichi told Morocco World News. “Competing against such bright, eloquent students from across the US and coming in first place made us very happy and is a testament to our preparation and great team dynamic and complementarity.”
The team debated topics from climate change and democracy to authoritarianism and China’s global position.
Despite being his first participation in a debating competition, Lahrichi won the title of sixth-best debater in the event. Meanwhile, his teammate Al Munefi was crowned as the best first Arabic language speaker and Younis secured the 8th position in the ranking.
“While I never got a chance to practice debate or public speaking before, I was very excited when the Duke Arabic department invited me to interview to join the team,” Lahrichi told MWN. “I don’t think I would have ever done debating if not for them.”
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