Tharindu Ameresekere of Millennium Toastmasters Club was crowned double champion at Ovation 2023, Toastmasters District 82 Conference (Sri Lanka and the Maldives). He won first place in the Humorous Speech Contest as well as the International Speech Contest (which is the pathway to the World Championship of Public Speaking).
Ameresekere’s speech will be submitted to the Regional Finals from which 28 semi-finalists will be shortlisted globally. He is also the only Toastmaster in Sri Lanka to have won district championships in three of the four competition categories having won Table Topics (Impromptu speaking) championship of District 82 in 2015.
It has been a nine-year journey for Tharindu who started competing in 2014 and has since been sharpening his skills in public speaking via the Toastmasters program.
His International Speech Contest winning speech titled “Swing It” was a motivational speech which spoke about the importance of giving all your efforts when you take a strike at a goal in life with reference to the game of golf which was delivered with a mix of humour and storytelling at the BMICH. His winning humorous speech was titled “A Strange Encounter” which spoke about strangers who could have a story to share with us and can leave a lasting impact on our lives if we are open to them.
In his acceptance speech he paid tribute to his first mentor and coach, the late DTM Ananda Chittambalam.
Ameresekere is a senior lecturer at the Postgraduate Institute of Management.