JOHOR BARU: She may have been down with fever and grappling with a bad case of nerves, but Form Four student Farah Nadhirah Nizam did not let those obstacles prevent her from spelling her way to victory in the Johor secondary school-level RHB-New Straits Times Spell-It-Right (SIR) challenge today.
The 16-year-old beat 90 other students to walk away with the RM3,000 top prize after seven hours of gruelling qualifying and final rounds at the Berjaya Waterfront Mall, Stulang Laut.
"I am feeling a bit under the weather as I have a sore throat and a bit feverish. But as this is an important comptetition for my team from SMK Pasir Gudang, I cannot let them and the school down.
"The entire school has been cheering for the team's success," said the SMK Pasir Gudang student.
She joins SK Bandar Baru Uda 2 pupil, Nor Sarah Qistina Helmy, 10, who won the primary school category on Friday, in representing Johor to the SIR national finals in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 1.
Farah was announced the overall state champion for secondary schools when she correctly spelt the word 'numen'.
She said that to prepare for the challenge, she did a lot of reading and looked up difficult words in English dictionaries.
The first runner-up prize went to Khalisah Mohd Gadus, 15, from SMK Taman Pelangi who was making her third appearance in the SIR state challenge.
She won RM2,500. Priya Kaur Jessy, 17, bagged the second runner-up place, grabbing RM2,000.
The judge for the Johor leg of the SIR was college lecturer Jashireen Mohd Bashir, who was also the head judge for the primary category state final on Friday.
"This is my fourth year as a judge in the competition. The Johor participants this year performed extremely well. Most participants were able to correctly spell the words given to them," she said.