Francis Douglas Memorial College head-boy Polaiu'amea Kirifi giving the speech that placed him second at the 2016 Race Unity Speech Awards in Auckland.

For Polaiu'amea​ Kirifi​, the best part of participating in a national speech competition was seeing his older brother.

Kirifi won the Taranaki regional final of the speech awards on April 1 and headed up to Auckland for the national semi-finals on Friday and finals on Saturday.

His brother Du'Plessis Kirifi is currently training with the Waikato Rugby Union Academy in Hamilton but came up to the semi-finals. Kirifi said having him there to hear the speech helped him come out on top of his heat.

Tom Mackintosh Francis Douglas Memorial College head boy Polaiu'amea Kirifi gives his speech at the Race Unity speech awards in Auckland.

"It did give me a big lift," Kirifi said.

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"He had been there in the preparation of while I was writing it, but he hadn't actually heard the full speech so I really wanted to deliver it for him, on the night he was going to be there."

Kirifi came second in the final, behind Palmerston North Boys' High School's Head boy Te Ariki Te Puni.

After finding out he had won his heat, "the real work began".

"I was, not nervous, but in anticipation of what the other ones would be. I was excited," he said.

"I just really wanted to get my points in my speech was across to the audience."

Kirifi was first up, "I drew the unlucky straw there", and he said when Te Puni gave his speech, he knew it was a winner.

"When he said it, I just thought 'that was great'," he said. "It was a great speech."

"I was stocked, I was proud to have represented my school and I was proud to have been part of the history of the competition."

He encouraged other students to give it a go.

"The topic is relevant to today's youth, things do happen in these schools and this speech addressing it could go towards fixing it and achieving racial harmony."