the second best

Yep, you are right.  I was the second best contestant in the Speech Evaluation competition during the 2011 Division A Toastmasters Annual Conference held at the Riyadh Palace Hotel.  The only person who beat me was TM Sankayan Aier of the Riyadh Toastmasters Club. This was the same person who beat me in the Table Topics contest during the Area 1 conference held last April.  And I also remember, he beat me last year in the International Speech contest also in Area 1 conference. Score: Sankayan- 3, Nathan - 0.

There were actually five contestants and these five were the finalist or winners among the 5 different Areas of the Division A.  TM Mohammed Al Hajeri represented Area 38, TM Sunila Chaku from Area 22, TM Federico Delfin who was the 3rd place winner comes from Area 4, TM Sankayan the champion comes from Area 1, and I represented Area 5.  Many Toastmasters said that it was tough contest and we had very close fight.  Considering TM Sunila was the division champion three years back, TM Al Hajeri was a champion 4 years back, TM Delfin was the champion in 2005 & 2004, and TM Sankayan was a 5 times champion; the fact that I beat three other former champion was already a feat by itself.

I was happy, of course.  Initially, I just thought of joining the contest and said "let's get through with this".  It never crossed my mind to join-to-win.  All I wanted was to participate and make a good performance.  Now that I have the 2nd price, well... that's a consolation.