The contestants we are telling you about today do not practice for physical endurance but their high sporting spirit gave them an edge in a recent competition in which they were very successful - the World University Debating Championships (WUDC).

Perhaps, the existence of a competition in the form of a structured dispute may be a surprise to some but such competitions are popular around the world and the Bulgarian competitors show very good results. In the period December 27 - January 4, the Spanish capital city of Madrid hosted the World University Debating Championships, in which more than 250 teams from all over the world took part. Among them were Nikolay Angelov and Rumen Marinov, who managed to reach the final. Two other teams from Bulgaria took part in the championships - Maria Macheva and Biser Angelov reached the quarterfinals and the team of Alek Selveliev and Velina Andonova qualified for the round of 16.

Initially, all teams go through 9 rounds of debates, after which a ranking is compiled and the elimination rounds start, Rumen Marinov told Radio Bulgaria and revealed more details about the tournament, in which the contestants must defend or refute a given thesis:

"Each of the topics involves two teams 'Against' and two teams 'For'. Each speaker has 7 minutes, with a person from the "For" team starting first. The teams receive the topic for the respective round 15 minutes before its start. After the end of all rounds, the winning teams are grouped according to their results. Our team with Nikolay Angelov was among the strongest ones with many victories. We managed to win and qualify for the elimination rounds.”

In the finals, Nikolay and Rumen faced teams from the Philippines, Israel and Great Britain, falling just a few votes short of winning the competition. The team from the Philippines became the winners of the tournament.

The debates are held on a wide range of topics including politics, history, philosophy, new technologies, artificial intelligence and others. In order to participate in such a competition, it is not necessary to have in-depth knowledge in any of the fields, but only basic knowledge,as well as eloquence, speed and wit.

"The most important thing is for a person to be able to synthesize a large volume of information that is easily understandable for the other team,” Rumen Marinov adds. “It is also important to make the jury remember your arguments. The way you express yourself and the tone of your voice has an important effect. A good command of gestures as well as body language is also important for success in such a competition."

Ani Kovacheva was the Bulgarian representative in the tournament's jury.

"The jury are assigned tasks with the help of a program. After the end of the debate they choose the place of the team in the ranking. Usually, this happens in a discussion with at least several other members of the jury and the decision is never made by a single person. Ani was a judge for all 9 rounds, but she was unable to qualify for the eliminations, as she has recently started been involved in this hobby of ours," Rumen Marinov, who works as an IT specialist, says.

The Bulgarian Debate Association is a non-governmental organization established in 2011. Its members are debate clubs from schools and cities throughout the country. The main task of the association at the moment is the creation of a national debate team that can represent Bulgaria at international competitions.