"Were competing" is a verb phrase. "Were" is the auxiliary verb (past tense of "to be"), and "competing" is the present participle of the verb "compete." Together, they indicate an ongoing action that took place in the past.
Compete is a verb. If I COMPETE against you, competing is what i am doing against you, so it's a verb.
The part of speech for this particular word is a noun.
part of speech
The part of speech for "answer" is a noun.
what part of speech is beneath
adverb
The part of speech for "explicit" is an adjective.
The part of speech for "lecturer" is a noun.
The part of speech for "rapid" is an adjective.
The part of speech of "came" is a verb.
The part of speech for "breezy" is an adjective.
The part of speech for "buried" is a verb.