BANGALORE: The finals of the 7th edition of Verbattle Junior and Verbattle Seniors were held on Saturday amidst a packed venue (Town Hall) filled with enthusiastic crowd of school/ college students and parents.The Verbattle Junior finals saw a tough fight between the three teams of Vidyashilp Academy, Bangalore, BVB Nagarjuna Vidyaniketan, Bangalore and CMR National Public School, Bangalore with Vidyashilp Academy emerging as the winner.In the Verbattle Senior category, the three finalists were Govinda Dasa First Grade College, Suratkal, Amber Valley Residential School, Chikmangalur and Sahyadri College of Engineering & Management, Mangalore with Govinda Dasa First Grade, Suratkal emerging as the winner. The winning teams were given a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh with the runners up being awarded with Rs 10,000each. The prizes were given away by Home Minister R Ashok.The debates were moderated personally by the renowned TV anchor and founder of Verbattle, Deepak Thimmaya.The Verbattle Junior category also had a mentor round which included a round of questions to one team by the mentor of the other team.The competitions were judged by Brijesh Kallapa, Supreme Court Judge, Sunil Rajshekhar, CEO Times BPL and Dr Nagendraswamy, president, Manipal Hospital.Speaking about the debate competition, Deepak Thimmaya, founder, Verbattle said, “Every year, we try and better the quality of the competition from the previous years. The depth of topics and the standard of selection are raised every year. Verbattle is one of its kind platforms today in the state and probably even in the country which gives such kind of exposure to students. This year, we had over 5,000 schools and colleges who registered.”Brijesh Kalappa, one of the judges shared, “This has been an extremely insightful and interesting competition. The level of confidence and knowledge exhibited by the students has been remarkable. It was an extremely tough decision to choose a winner as all the three teams were equally good in most aspects.”“Taking part in Verbattle has been an enriching experience for me. There is no other platform that is available to us which is as dynamic and exciting as the Verbattle competition. Year after year, we have looked forward to participate in this competition as it something unique for students and the topics given are very relevant which gives us more confidence to debate upon. It is a tremendous learning experience for us,” said, Aditya Ashok Balu, one of the finalists of the Verbattle Senior combat.“Winning and losing is part of the competition. We were lucky that we won. More than winning the competition, we appreciate the fact that we have had the opportunity to learn a lot from the other participants,” shared Sudesh Kumar SK, winner of the Senior category.“We did not participate in the competition just for the sake of winning. At Verbattle, we get an opportunity to meet lots of students from other parts of Karnataka with whom we tend to discuss and share knowledge,” said one of the finalists in the Verbattle Senior category.Verbattle 2011 has partnered with International Debate Education Association, which develops and promotes debates and debate-related activities throughout the world.
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