Sunday Times 2
Toastmaster Sandun becomes first World Champion in Impromptu Speaking
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Sandun Fernando (R) receiving the award
Sri Lankan Sandun Anton Fernando won big at the Worldwide Impromptu Speaking Extravaganza (WISE) beating speakers around the world to be crowned as the first-ever world champion in impromptu speaking.
Fernando was feted and felicitated at his home club – the Smedley Toastmasters Club’s – installation, at the Ramada Hotel, last Thursday (2).
In his path to the pinnacle of Impromptu Speaking, known as Table Topics in TM, Fernando had to win multiple rounds in a debate-like competition, worked off virtually.
An award-winning public speaker, corporate trainer, consultant and now this, a man of multiple feathers in his cap, Fernando had to prove his point on many topics.
In the title-deciding stage of the competition, split into four additional rounds, Fernando saw it off, sealing it in style, winning the verbal war on the topic of “Children have as much right to their privacy as their parents do and this right must be enforced”.
He, in the then-District 82 community (comprising Tamil Nadu, India and Sri Lanka), was already the title-holder of Impromptu Speaking and Evaluation Speech contests, and the only dual champion ever to do so. The latest victory came as the icing on the cake and was a triple triumph given the weight of the win.
Fernando, a long-standing member of Smedley, delivering the keynote address for the occasion, remembered and paid tribute to five fellow Smedlians, for shaping his life and being the mattress and motivators. The most important of the five being past president of the club, and the first Lankan and Asian to win the World Championship of Public Speaking in 2014, Dananjaya Hettiarachchi.
WISE, a world championship in Impromptu Speaking, is endorsed by Toastmasters International, the governing body for TM. Fernando was selected to compete along with two other countrymen as he was a district champion, before he was adjudged the overall winner.
Coinciding the felicitation, was also the installation of the new incoming executive committee for 2021/22, and TM Elmo Leon taking over the baton as the newly-installed President.
A much-anticipated award for the night was that of Outstanding TM of the Year, which was won by the outgoing Sergeant-at-Arms and incoming Public Relations Officer, TM Lakmini.
The new executive committee: (L-R) Shenal Fernando (Sergeant-at-Arms), Gayathri Liyanage (VP- Membership), Devnie De Soysa (Treasurer), Elmo Leon (President), Lakmini Wickramasinghe (VP- Public Relations), Isuri Jayawardena (VP- Education), Menushi Balapitiya (Secretary) and Samitha Makumbura (Outgoing President)