KUALA LUMPUR: Angeline Christie Danny responded with a loud, firm "yes" every time the judges asked whether she was ready to spell a word.

So it came as no surprise when the 9-year-old emerged champion at the Federal Territory RHB-New Straits Times Junior Spell-It-Right (SIR) Challenge held at Universiti Malaya yesterday.

The SK Pandan Perdana pupil defeated 66 pupils aged 7 to 9 and took home RM1,000 and an Acer laptop.

"The words are a little difficult but I gave them a try anyway," she said.

The three words that made her the state winner were "ultimate", "luminary" and "reservation".
"I read about the competition in the newspaper and always thought it was exciting.

"But it's even more exciting now because I've won. I plan to save the money and share the laptop with my mother and sisters."

Geologist Morina Timah, 35, who encouraged her eldest daughter to participate in the challenge, said: "Usually, I'd play a little spelling game with her while doing the laundry.

"But she has always shown an interest in spelling as her favourite subject is English."

For school prefect and aspiring scientist Nabeel Kamarul Bahren, 9, coming in second was not so bad as he said he was doing it for fun.

The Year Three pupil of SK Seri Hartamas said the easiest word he had to spell was "expulsion".

"I found the word several times in the newspaper but I didn't know the meaning. Now I do," he said with pride.

His classmate Atishay Tomas Joseph, with whom he practised spelling in school, won third place.

He said the easiest word for him was "ruby".

They won RM800 and RM500 respectively.

The prizes were given away by RHB Bank central region deputy regional director Teng-ku Mohamad Rizam Tengku Abdul Aziz and NST brand manager Leslie N. Jebaretnam.

The NST's Newspaper-in- Education (NIE) programme coordinator and judge Joseph How said it was a tough fight as they had to open the reserved list of words at the third round.

"It shows that the words given during the first two rounds were not challenging enough for the children. They spelled most of them correctly."

Other judges were NIE senior executive Kulwant Kaur and NIE facilitator Elizabeth Koshi while the presenter and chief judge was NIE manager Mary Chandapillai.

See also Learning Curve