KOTA BARU: Tengku Nadia Liyana Tengku Mahmood brushed aside opponents to emerge the Kelantan winner of the RHB-New Straits Times Spell-It-Right primary level Challenge here yesterday.

A picture of confidence, the Year Six pupil at Sekolah Kebangsaan Zainab 1 only faltered once in the five-round final, failing to spell the word "promulgate".

Coming in second was Nur Adina Ammyza Muhammad Yuswadi of SK Suria 1, Tanah Merah, while third place went to Mohamad Azizul Fahmi Mohamad Nasir of SK Datuk Hashim 2.

Tengku Nadia was surprised that she had come out tops in the state-level competition as she had not practised for it, being busy training with the school baseball team.

"I only started practising two days ago. I tried to memorise difficult words from dictionaries with friends testing me on my knowledge of tough words," she said.
The daughter of retiree Tengku Mahmood Tengku Mohamad and chief clerk Mazyah Mahmud, Tengku Nadia watches movies in English besides speaking the language with friends at school.

"This is encouraged by our teachers. Reading books and communicating with friends overseas over the Internet also helped," she said.

Tengku Nadia, seventh of eight girls, wants to follow the footsteps of older sister Tengku Nur Atiqah, who is studying medicine in Ireland.

"I am saving the RM1,000 prize for my studies," said the 13-year-old who will represent the state at the finals in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 9.

Meanwhile, Nur Adina, who has been practising hard for the competition the last two months, was disappointed with her second placing.

"Some of the words were foreign to me," said the daughter of a businessman who managed to spell two out of five words in the final to take home RM800.

Mohamad Azizul Fahmi received RM500 for coming in third.

SK Zainab 1, with its top placing in the schools category, received RM1,000.

SK Mentuan and SK Datuk Hashim 2, which came in second and third, received RM800 and RM500 respectively.

Judge Norhaini Mat Lajis of Universiti Teknologi Mara, Machang, said the competition was a good way of helping students spell words correctly.

"The winners were really very good. But I found many unfamiliar with some words."

Prizes were presented by New Sunday Times associate editor A. Kathirasen and Kota Baru RHB Bank Berhad branch manager Ros Naliza Mohamed.