IPOH: Reading the Oxford dictionary daily paid off for Shareen Nisha Jauhar Ali, 9, the winner of the Perak RHB-New Straits Times Spell-it-Right Junior Challenge here yesterday.

From the first round of the preliminaries to the first tie-breaker, the year Three pupil of SJK (T) St Philomena Convent spelt every word right.

A picture of confidence, Shareen sailed through each round with the serenity of a person who knew her destiny as a champion.

This impressed even the parents of the other 27 participants.

Speaking after collecting RM1,000 and an Acer notebook for coming out tops, she said she had her English teacher and parents to thank for pushing her to excellence in the English language.
"They encouraged me to take part in story-telling competitions and guided me in learning the language.

"I thank them for getting me interested in learning and memorising new words."

The only child of Jauhar Ali, 39, and A. Annaletchumi, 29, Shareen said her parents would buy her children's story books and other English-based reading material besides helping her when she faced difficulties with words.

She said she put in extra effort to learn and memorise new words after her parents signed her up for the competition.

Shareen added: "Over the last few days, my English teacher helped me prepare for the challenge.

"She helped me memorise the tougher English words and taught me their meaning and pronunciation."

In the final round, she faced six girls who finished their preliminaries with perfect scores.

Up to the first tie-breaker, four had perfect scores: Shameena Kaur Gill, T. Varisha Srijeny, Shareen and Anisha Kaur Gill.

Shareen clinched the title by spelling the word "guardian" correctly.

Shameena, 8, and her sister Anisha, 9, misspelt "infancy" and "entertain" respectively while Varisha spelt "seafarer" wrongly.

Shameena and Anisha, both S.K. Raja Perempuan students, won the second and third placings, collecting RM800 and RM500.

The prizes were presented by RHB Bank Bhd's Perak Central area manager Loh Soon On and NSTP trade marketing assistant manager, Shamsaini Salim.