The five finalists

The All Island Best Speaker 2008 (AIBS 2008) was held last week at the Cinnamon Grand, Colombo. The evening began with the prepared speech round where each of the five finalists spoke on a topic of their choice for seven minutes. After the recess, each of the five finalists entertained the audience with their impromptu speaking skills by delivering a speech of two minutes duration.

The winner of AIBS 2008 was Ajanthan Sivathas, speaking on the topic “The choice is all yours”. The first runner-up was Ms. Azrah Azher who spoke on the topic “I know because I am a woman”. Dharshana De Silva, a Toastmaster, was placed second runner-up. The impromptu topic given to all five finalists was “If I had my way”. The other two finalists were Prasanna Welangoda, and Ishantha Samarasinghe. All five contestants "ran" neck-to-neck, making the winning decision a hard one for the seven judges.
The Sunday Times was a media sponsor of the event.