Aquinas College head boy Samuel Brebner is the winner of the Waikato/BOP district finals of the Lions Young Speechmaker of the Year competition.

Aquinas College head boy Samuel Brebner, Cambridge High School's Jordon Simmonds and Bethlehem College's Daniella Schroder.

Held in Rotorua at the weekend, Samuel was the pick of the 14 finalists, with Cambridge High School's Jordon Simmonds coming first runner-up and Bethlehem College's Daniella Schroder finishing second runner-up.

These three now progress to the national finals in Napier in mid-August where the winner of that contest wins a six week trip to Canada.

The competition involved the students giving a prepared speech and an impromptu one on the topic named on the night of: ‘what image best portrays New Zealand to the world'.

In their speeches Daniella talked about how a ‘set of boxing gloves' was appropriate as the country punches above its weight and Samuel talked about ‘No 8 wire'.