Two 14-year-old students from Chennai have won the national Verbattle debate championship. 

Sumedh C and Anirudh A L, from Chettinad Vidyashram, beat their peers from SBOA School and Junior College and PSBB Millennium School, both located in Chennai, at the finals held at the Dayananda Sagara Institutions here. The winners received cash prizes and citations. 

Sponsored by HDFC Ergo and Gen Works, the 15th edition of the debate competition was themed around Debate, Democracy, Language and Leadership. Children in the 12-16 age group took part in the competition that spanned over six days. 

Three teams qualified for the finals and debated three topics in length: sports is now a game of money, allopathy is always better than Ayurveda and communism is superior to capitalism. The students were guided by their teachers who participated as mentors.