BACKThis term, the Junior Open (JO) debating season came to a close with a staggering, and historical triumph for Rangitoto College.
Out of the 180 teams from five different regions of Auckland, the Rangitoto Teams survived five grueling preliminary rounds which decided whether they would make it to finals rounds. Out of all the teams, 16 made it to the Octofinals which included Rangitoto 1 Team [Talia Alharaisi, Dalveena (Dalveena Kaur) Kiranjeet Singh, Luna Shaban and Wota Li] plus Rangitoto 6 team [Chenghao (Cheng) Pan, Eric Chen, Yanxing (Robert) Chen, Yanhao (Julia) Chen and Ziheng (Henry) Huang].
Both teams continued to successfully win and progress through the Knockout round finals, advancing through the Octofinals at Lynfield, the Quarterfinals also at Lynfield, and the Semifinals at St Kentigern College. This made the two Rangitoto Teams the top Junior Open teams in all of Auckland. This was a historic moment, as it marked the first time Rangitoto College won the Junior Open champion cup even before the Grand Finals took place.
Then there were two.
The Junior Open Grand finals was then fought on home ground at Rangitoto College where the Rangitoto girls’ team was victorious and the boys’ team placed second.
Written by Cheng Pan, Year 10
