A team of business studies students from Trinity College Dublin is joint winners of the prestigious McIntire International Case Competition which is held annually at the University of Virginia.

In succeeding last year's winners, the Wharton School, Trinity became the first non-American winner in the 16 years that the competition has been running. It was also the first time the judges considered the standard of work merited two winners; Trinity shared first prize with a team from the University of Texas.

The Trinity team combined a mix of finance, strategy and marketing specialists. The competition is run over a four-day period with each team producing a written report on the case and making oral presentations before the chief executive officer and senior management of the target company. As defending champions they will be invited automatically to compete again next year.

The team, which was sponsored by The Irish Times had Mr John Fahy, a lecturer in Strategic Management at Trinity, as its academic advisor.