KUALA LUMPUR: Was it Lady Luck or mere hard work? Just 10 days after receiving excellent results on her year-end year examination, 11-year-old Nur Narissa Mohd Sauh was declared the winner of the Koko's Word Spin Contest.
The Sekolah Kebangsaan Jelapang pupil won RM350 and a Nestle breakfast cereal hamper.
"I will use half the money to buy school necessities for next year and put the rest in the bank," she said during the prize-giving ceremony at Balai Berita on Thursday.
Manmit Bhajan Singh, 12, of Sekolah Kebangsaan Tengku Mariam in Johor came in second while 11-year-old Choong Mun of Sekolah Kebangsaan (C) Damansara came in third.
Manmit won RM250 and a hamper and Choong Mun received RM150 and a hamper.
The winners of the Taekwondo Koko contest also received their prizes on Thursday, with Joshua Tee Tian Jin, 10, of Sekolah Kebangsaan (C) Tian Hua in Negri Sembilan clinching first place.
Akahilesh Majendran, 8, of Sekolah Kebangsaan 1 Jalan Batu Tiga, Klang, won second place and 10-year-old Siti Nur Balqish Zainuddin from Sekolah Kebangsaan Tengku Mariam in Johor, came in third.
All the winners received the same prizes as those in the Koko's Word Spin Contest.
The two contests, organised by Nestle KoKo Krunch and the New Straits Times in conjunction with KoKo's Smart Start programme, was open to children aged 7 to 12.
Forty-seven of the 5,000 children who entered received consolation prizes. Education Ministry deputy director general Datuk Noor Rezan Bapoo Hashim, Nestle Products Sdn Bhd country manager (Malaysia/Singapore) Nirmala Thuray and New Straits Times Press circulation sales senior manager Mohd Azrai Ariffin presented the prizes.