Your Story. Your Stage.
Under the theme ‘Your story. Your stage’, over 60 participants actively took to the stage on the 4th of October 2018 at the electrical seminar room to share their stories. After a very competitive preliminaries where the participants shared their stories through a 5-7 minute speech, the 10 best participants were selected to move forward into the semi-finals. They were: Shahan Fernando, Minikirani Amaya Dharmasiri, Asitha Rathnayake, Randula Abeyweera, Nikila Dharmadasa, Chathumi Thumbovila, Thishani Wijayaratne, Anupa Wijegunawardana, Praveen Kumarasinghe and Rajitha Katugaha.
These 10 semi-finalists electrified the audience on the 21st of October 2018 at the semi-finals with their prepared speeches along with a 1-2 ½ minute impromptu speech. After this battle, the 5 best participants, Amaya Dharmasiri, Asitha Rathnayake, Thishani Wijayaratne, Chathumi Thumbovila and Shahan Fernando were selected for the Grand Finale.
From over 60 participants to the best 10 and finally, to the top 5, Amaya Dharmasiri (Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering), Asitha Rathnayake (Department of Civil Engineering), Thishani Wijayaratne (Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering), Chathumi Thumbovila (Department of Chemical and Process Engineering) and Shahan Fernando (Department of town and country planning) were ready to battle it out on the stage of the Grand Finale on the 8th of November 2018 in the Civil Auditorium.
The grand finale commenced with the lighting of the oil lamp in the presence of the chief guest, Vice Chancellor Prof. K.K.C.K Perera, Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof P.K.S Mahanama, Chief Judge DTM Piyakara D Jayaratne, Staff Advisor Dr. Indika Sigera, the immediate Past President Piyumi Bandaranayake, President Chathuranga Amunugama, Project Chair Harsha Chamara and one of the finalists. And what followed right after, was nothing short of impressive. The audience was mesmerised by the performances of each of the finalists in both the prepared and impromptu rounds.
And after what would have been weeks of meetings and sleepless nights by the President Chathuranga Amunugama, the two project chairs Kasun Udara Ranasinghe and Harsha Chamara, Speech Olympiad XII came to an end with Asitha Rathnayake emerging as the champion of Speech Olympiad XII with his winning speech, ‘One step forward, two steps back’ which spoke of the two ways by which we can solve any problem; Amaya Dharmasiri emerging as the first runners up and the best impromptu speaker with her prepared speech ‘closet talks’ where she spoke about the importance of remembering one’s family and roots; Shahan Fernando emerging as the second runners up and the best prepared speaker (without even having written his own script!) and Thishani Wijayaratne emerging as the most popular speaker with a record breaking number of supporters from both within and outside the university.
After months of excitement and hard work, the flagship event of Gavel Mora, Speech Olympiad XII, had come to an end.