Barely weeks ago, a young Sri Lankan, Omar Hazari, won an International Public Speaking Competition, scripting success for the country. That marked only the third time, a country had defended the title, with Sri Lanka retaining the crown after triumphing last time. 

Omar, 19, had been vying for the national title, National Public Speaking Competition, for three years. After recording a win, the Royalist grabbed the global title in his debut, organised by the English-Speaking Union in England. Speaking in his first print media exclusive, he reflects on a retrospect – from speech difficulties to speech stardom.

Excerpts are below:
 

 Q  can you explain how the international competition panned out?
Yes, we had three rounds after we went there, first was the impromptu heat. We were given 15 minutes to prepare. We spoke on that for three-minutes.  Then we had the semi-finals, based on a theme. We had to prepare a speech beforehand on the same. We could construe it any way we wanted to. Our own message, everything. We just had a five-minute time frame to deliver the speech.

The Finals were the same format as the semi-finals. They give us a theme, we prepare the speech, and we deliver it. So, for finals, the theme was based on a Japanese poet - The light of a candle is passed to another candle by Yosa Buson. What ensued was very interesting because all the speakers, spoke about something different.  
I spoke about how  small actions you take can create invisible big impacts in the future. I tried to build it around a simple theme, tried to magnify it in the best way possible. For the semi-finals, it was a quote by Indira Gandhi - the power to question is the basis of all human progress. That, too, was very interesting because different people had different perspectives on that topic.

Those two particularly (heats and semis) had interesting topics. For the finale, I spoke on a taboo topic in life, saving people and spreading positivity. I basically talked about a very detrimental thing I had encountered and how people around me through the smallest actions have given back life to me. Basically, the reason I'm here is because of the small actions taken by many people around.

 Q It has been a month since you became a World Champion. How has life been since then?
Was very surreal at the outset. As soon as I won it, I was blown away because the last country to win this competition back-to-back was Belgium 33 years ago. And before this, only two other countries, England and Australia, have done it before.  It took a while to sink in. Since winning, I had to go  for interviews and photo sessions. I got the full effect of it only the next day when I was leaving the competition.
Since then, I got a lot of unexpected social media popularity and I've gotten a few opportunities, doors have opened and it's interesting to see where life is taking me on from there. Been a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences.

 Q  How was it to win?
Winning was fantastic. It's the biggest thing that I've done, biggest accomplishment I've done and being able to do it was a big privilege because I've been trying very hard for this competition.
I started my journey to  international public speaking competitions three years ago. In 2024, I ranked 3rd in the national selections, in 2025 ranked 2nd in the national selections and this year I finally won the national selections and an automatic graduation to the global stage. Therefore, three years of work in progress, three years of effort, and a lot of practice. Therefore, winning this has been just on another level for me. Amazing!

 Q  Can you recount how your path towards public speaking began?
My public speaking journey took off when I was five-years-old. I was selected to deliver the Vote-of-Thanks for my Montessori concert. I had a stammer when I was a kid. When my mother got to know the news that I was tasked with a speech, she was surprised and  confused. The response was, it’s about giving opportunities. I had flunked in rehearsals. But I dished out a decent job at my concert. Subsequent to that, we worked on getting over my stammering problems. Started giving speech in primary schools for small concerts. Never imagined going global, but as time elapsed, we enrolled in multiple competitions, we found out about Gavel Club. I enjoyed a bit of success there too. I ended up being the youngest to win some of them, including the Junior Speech Master.

 Q  Did you, in your wildest dreams, expect to win this?
Had you told this ten years ago (laughs), this was not even a dream, neither on the radar. But as you go through life, you realise things can actually be within reach and couple that with realization.

 Q  Walk us through the moment of winning the National version.
Winning the Nationals was the best thing I ever did. I’ve been vying for three-years. The local title summed up a lot of hard work. If you talk about winning the national title, that was almost as big as winning the ultimate version of the international. The global glory was once-in-a-lifetime. Took a moment to sink in. To reel back, winning the Nationals was something huge for me.

 Q  Your message for those aspiring to carve their own path?
One thing I have always believed in, is doing things irrespective of the circumstances and personal situation. In this Public Speaking context, if you underestimate yourself as not good enough, the only way to become the best speaker is by practice. Everyone has their own starting points. Mine was my stutter. The important part is to just go out there and do it irrespective of the result. Put yourself out there, that is the only way you’ll assess your potential.
 

 Q  Your lessons learnt over this competition.
For me, it’s honestly being relentless, regardless of how many times we fail. The ability to persevere is one of the best lessons learnt. Following them are, the ability to remain focused and being consistent. Consistency, perseverance and relentless for me, are the biggest lessons learnt.
During my competition at the national-level, for three years, I kept failing. I did not want to return to contesting. But I went ahead. One thing I learnt across the journey, is going from comfort to discomfort. As speakers, your placed in uncomfortable scenarios. Your given an impromptu topic, that makes you uncomfortable. The faster your able to adapt in these scenarios, being comfortable in discomfort is what would drive you forward. The faster you can master the art of being uncomfortable, the faster you can achieve success.
Also, get comfortable failing, because the only way to win a competition is by failing first. Fail fast and fail as many times and fail big. You only win through failing and learn from your mistakes. Be unafraid to fail.

 Q  Anything else you haven’t covered; you want to conclude with?
Try to have good people around you. I would not be here, if not for the people around me. Starts with my mom (Qadijah Irshad), coaching on multiple things, not simply stage-and-speech. My cousin, Umar Azvar, also an award-winning speaker. He also helped and mentored me throughout the process. Be surrounded by people in the same wavelength. People advanced than you to mentor you. No matter how relentless you are, if you are not armed with a good support system, if you don’t have the access to information and improvements, you can’t get better.