11-year-old wins with 'vaccinal'

04 May 2014| last updated at 08:56AM

By OLIVIA MIWIL | olivia@nst.com.my 

STATE-LEVEL: Cristabel Ntakop Ndzi spells word correctly to clinch top spot in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: Primary five pupil Cristabel Ntakop Ndzi won the state-level RHB-NST Spell-It-Right (SIR) challenge  yesterday.
The SK St Francis Convent (M) pupil clinched the top spot when she spelled "vaccinal" correctly, defeating Wesley Tan Zander from SJK(C) Chung Hwa Likas.
"I relied on the pronunciation of some of the words. Luckily I managed to spell them right," she said, admitting that she had never heard of the words "ingurgitation", "adulate", "partitive" and "gaiety".
Cristabel, who will represent sabah at the national-level SIR challenge on Sept 27 in Kuala Lumpur, said she would "study the Merriam Webster online dictionary" as well as watch BBC news to prepare for the challenge.
Tan, 11, said he had prepared hard under his parents' guidance.
"It has been a pleasant experience and I am glad to learn new words throughout the competition," he said, adding that he wished the best for Cristabel.
Cristabel, Tan and third-placed winner Isaac Emmanuel, who were last year's state-level SIR finalists, took home RM2,000, RM1,500 and RM1,000, respectively.
In Kangar, Farqihah Zakir from Sekolah Kebangsaan Behor came out top of the SIR competition, after defeating 99 other contestants at Dewan Kapitol of Universiti Malaysia Perlis here yesterday.
The 12-year-old had to face a stiff challenge in the final round which went into a three-way tie-breaker involving Tengku Damia Atiqah Tengku Mahmud from SK Sena and Ooi Wen Xuan from SRJK (C) Khoon Aik.
Farqihah, who broke the tie in the first round, walked home with RM2,000. Tengku Damia Atiqah, 12, who was first runner-up, went home with RM1,500 while second runner-up Ooi, also 12, went home with RM1,000.
The fourth place was won by 9-year-old Jolene Esther Tan from SRJK ( C) Khoon Aik. Jolene, who was crowned the Northern Region SIR Junior in Alor Star recently, also received RM800.
Meanwhile, the fifth-place winner, Nur Izzati Sharizal,10 from SK Jejawi brought home RM500.
The prizes were presented by Media Prima senior audit officer Mohamad Faiz Rusli.
Present during the ceremony was RHB Kangar Customer Service officer Wong Ngut Heng.

RHB-NST Spell-It-Right (SIR) Challenge winners in various categories with their prizes at Dewan Kapitol in Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Kangar, yesterday. Pix by Mahamad Zaidi

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