Palms were sweaty and hands quivered as more than 300 pupils vied for the title of best spellers in Dunedin at the Otago Daily Times Extra! spelling quiz last night.
Pupils came from primary schools as far south as Balclutha and as far north as Palmerston for the event at Tahuna Normal Intermediate School.
The year 5 and 6 competition was won by an Opoho School team of Jimmy Muir (10), Felix Telfer (10) and Nikau Edmond-Smaill (10).
It was the first time a team from Opoho had won the competition.
"We thought we had a good chance [of winning],'' Jimmy said.
"We came seventh last year so we wanted to come back and get a winning gold medal.''
The team got 98 out of 100 questions correct and had 75 from 75 after seven rounds.
There was no real strategy. They just "went with the flow'', Jimmy said.
The most difficult round for the boys was the "all or nothing'', where teams were given clues as to what the word might be and were then challenged to spell it correctly.
"We got a bit confused with equipped or equip,'' Jimmy said.
The Columba College team of Olivia Charles (12), Georgia Wong (13) and Megan Macdiarmid (12) took the year 7 and 8 competition with 99 out of 100.
The girls "had a good feeling'' going into the competition as they were second last year.
"We've all done it three to four times now, so we knew what we were doing,'' Georgia said.
Asked how they would celebrate their victory, Olivia said: "We'll have a party and hope the All Blacks win this Saturday.''
Quiz co-ordinator and Extra! editor Ivan Behrnes said it was an "outstanding turnout'' and the participants were getting "better and better'' each year.
