MUHAMMAD Amiruddin Ismail may not have won the top spot in the RHB-New Straits Times Spell-It-Right (SIR) National Challenge but the spelling phenom from Perlis is No. 1 to his ardent fans.

Muhammad Amiruddin’s grandparents Hashim Lebai Nasir and Radin Rahmah Radin Budin — both in their late 70s — boarded a bus from Felda Lubuk Merbau, Pendang to attend the competition held recently at the National Museum Auditorium in Kuala Lumpur.

Apart from his immediate family — father Ismail Hashim, mother Asrina Abdul Razak and three-year-old brother Muhammad Adam Aiman — six of his aunts and a handful of cousins also gave their support.

Some 22 students and teachers too made the long journey from SM Sains Tuanku Syed Putra, Kangar to cheer Muhammad Amiruddin on.

“I feel touched that they are all here. They had such high hopes for me,” says Muhammad Amiruddin, who idolises his grandparents.

Asrina says that her son takes after his paternal grandmother, who is also a voracious reader.

“He looks up to his grandparents because they managed to put six of seven children through university even though they were poor,” she adds.

When the fourth-former misspelled his last word and lost the chance to advance to the next level, his grandparents commiserated with him.

They urged him not to give up and to try again next year, a prospect which the 16-year-old is considering.

“I still have time to prepare for next year’s contest. I will definitely work harder,” says Muhammad Amiruddin.

For the recent challenge, Muhammad Amiruddin depended on The Free Dictionary website (http://www.freedictionary.com).

“It’s a useful tool because it allowed me to familiarise myself with the pronunciation of words. I had to listen to a word being pronounced and key in the right spelling,” he said.

For next year, Muhammad Amiruddin intends to improve his preparation techniques.

“Perhaps I need to rely more on the actual dictionary, which I didn’t do enough this year. Other contestants read the dictionary from cover to cover,” says Muhammad Amiruddin.