University of Cambridge teams dominated the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Inter-Varsity Debating Competition, winning the overall competition in addition to scooping up prizes for individual speakers.

The competition, which consisted of multiple rounds of debating in the British Parliamentary style, involved 116 teams and 232 participants from various institutions from the UK and overseas.

The competition took place before an audience of students from across Europe. A separate English as a Second Language (ESL) grand final debate was also planned for those participants who came from countries where English is not the first language.

Five Cambridge teams reached the quarter-finals after six rounds of debating, while two of the teams managed to reach the final.

The winning pair was Harish Natarajan of St John’s College and Matilda Wnek of Jesus College. The win is especially impressive, considering that it was Wnek’s first inter-varsity debating competition.

Cambridge students also fared well individually. Based on individual speaker points from the first six rounds, Jack Watson of Emmanuel College was awarded the Best Speaker prize, while his partner Maria English reached third place in the individual speaker category.

Renowned journalist and presenter Jon Snow chaired this year’s final.