While she and the rest of the SM Kebangsaan Agama Tok Jiring team emerged champions in the school's category last year, the 17-year-old had the glory all to herself this year as she spelt her way to win the individual category.

"Too bad I can't come back for more next year," said the Fifth Former who admitted she was lucky in her victory in the contest held at the Terengganu Trade Centre.

The third of four siblings grabbed the RM2,000 prize money by spelling "witticism" and "intractable" correctly.

"I was lucky to be given those words as I knew I would be having problems spelling some of the words that were presented to other finalists," said Nurul Azzah, who plans to save her prize money in the bank.

The battle for second place was a hard-fought seven round tie-breaker with Abol Hanif Abol Munafi, 15, of SMK Kompleks Gong Badak getting the better of Fatin Najwa Mahmud, 16, of SMK Menerong.

The Form Three student, who helped his school to be runners-up in the schools category earlier, spelt "disarmament" correctly to take home RM1,500 while the sole representative from Hulu Terengganu fumbled with her spelling of "magnanimous".

Fatin Najwa was overjoyed to receive the RM1,000 prize money as she had never expected to win anything at the tournament.

The farmer's daughter and the youngest of eight siblings, said she and three friends asked their English teacher Siti Norazliza to help them with the registration and preparation for the competition.

"This has been one unforgettable experience as we have never done this before and it would only be fair if I share some of the prize money with my teammates," she said.

SM Lembah Bidong emerged champiion in the schools' category and third place went to SM (Atas) Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Terengganu. A total of 19 schools participated in the competition.

Prizes were presented by NST deputy chief news editor and Content Committee chairman Balan Moses and RHB East Coast Region area manager Shaharuddin Ming.