A love of words and reading helped lift a Columba College team to victory in a tense event in Dunedin yesterday.
Team-mates Poppy Henderson, Emma Kinney and Aliya Drake had plenty to celebrate after winning the years 9 and 10 Otago Daily Times Extra! spelling quiz, held at Otago Girls' High School.
In a highly competitive overall field of about 30 teams, Columba College made a clean sweep of the top three places: team 28 winning, and teams 35 and 5 gaining the same, lower total, and, sharing second place.
As part of a different three-pupil team, Poppy and Aliya had narrowly failed to win an earlier spelling contest last year, losing by one point.
But they went one better this year, heading off two rival teams from the same college.
Emma was still "a bit overwhelmed'' after the win , and her fellow team members were also waiting for the result to sink in.
All three winning teams were consistent throughout the demanding 10-round event, the winners having been in first place halfway through the contest and teams 5 and 35 placed second and third respectively, at that stage.
The Otago Daily Times Extra! spelling quizzes are part of the newspaper's Class Act project, which celebrates the excellence of young people.
Extra! is a monthly educational publication produced by the newspaper for senior primary, intermediate and junior secondary school pupils.
