Syeda Amtul Saudi Gazette JEDDAH –Toastmasters International (TMI) Riyadh, Area 22, Dist 79, Division, conducted their annual speech contest on Friday at the NGHA auditorium. Kohinoor Toastmasters, Sand Dunes Toastmasters and Saudico Toastmasters participated in the contest. More than 100 delegates, including a number of Saudis, expatriates, executives, professionals actively took part in the contest's various activities, and praised all the clubs for successfully conducting the program. Linda Sage, Area 22 governor, said in the United States of America 82 percent people face fear of public speaking and the Toastmasters club is the platform to be a good speaker. Sage said Toastmaster is rapidly growing in the Saudi Arabia; every single person who comes to Toastmasters has a successful story and the Area 22 participants are the best speakers in Riyadh. Syed Waqas Javed was the chief judge at the contest. Five contestants each took part in the Table Topics, Humorous Speech, Evaluation, and the International Speech categories. In the International Speech contest, Sarah Kaleem Ahmed who spoke on the topic “shhh” was declared the winner followed by Omar Husseini who spoke on “I just lost hope,” and Syed Zia ur Rahman who spoke on “I just Care About you” held the second and third positions respectively. In the Humorous Speech category, Syed Faisal bagged the first position, Abdul Qadir secured the second position and Ibrahim Oraini third position. In Table Topics category, Sara Kaleem Ahmed was again placed first with Abdul Qadir and Syed Faisal on the second and third position respectively. The winner of the Evaluation contest were Omar Husseini, Syed Faisal and Abdul Qadir shared the second position, and Roge Methews was placed third. The contests were conducted by Sajid Kandi, Table Topics Contest; Abdullah Khaldi, Humorous Speech Contest; Sulaiman K, Evaluation Contest; and Niveen Abu Nijmeh, International Contest. Nijmeh also conducted the raffle draw and gave away gift vouchers of lunch and dinner for 2 people.
