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WUPID's top debating team

18 February 2009

Victor Finkel

Monash University's debating team has triumphed over defending champions the University of Sydney to take out the CIMB World Universities Peace Invitational Debate (WUPID) finals in Kuala Lumpur.

Held over four days, WUPID brought together 56 teams and 180 debaters from universities around the world to debate issues of peace.

With the topic Take Action Against Somalia Pirates, Monash debaters Victor Finkel and Amit Golder argued effectively for the need to involve a multinational force in curbing pirate activities and for peacekeeping operations to continue.

"The competition standard was very high, so to come away with the win was fantastic," Mr Finkel said.

Monash sent a total of four teams of two debaters each, plus three adjudicators to WUPID. Other participants from Monash were Andrew Black, Meredith Prior, Kiran Iyer, Nita Rao, Dom Guinane and Madeline Schultz.

After the event the Monash debaters visited the University's Sunway campus to share their experiences with its newly-established debate team.

In 2009 Monash will host the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships at the Caulfield campus.