CIMA Spellmaster – Competition intensifies
View(s):Words and spellings are fun to learn when there’s a motive behind learning. One could learn many new words but what if the word given in the competition is unknown? That’s where the challenge lies and that’s where the competitor is expected to question the judges and get the maximum use of the allocated one minute and presume the correct spellings. One may get it right and one may not but that’s what Spellmaster is all about. As intense as a competition could be, Spellmaster, the all island schools’ spelling competition concluded its 2nd and 3rd semifinals over the past two weeks. 
Twenty five competitors from the top 100 competed in each competition from which only five entrants were selected. The competitors were allowed to select two words from five categories; nature, science, culture, business and general which gave them an opportunity to spell words in the fields they are familiar with.
The competition began with much enthusiasm as every competitor present gave their maximum effort in getting both words right yet unfortunately losing the chance by misspelling just one or two letters. In addition, another common feature of this competition was, few contestants who got their first word wrong, tend to give up trying their best to get the second word correct.
However, it is important to mention that by getting at least one word correct may give the entrant an opportunity to compete again if the required number of entrants is not selected from the first round.
Out of the twenty five entrants in the 2nd semi final, only three contestants representing S.Thomas’ Preparatory School Kollupitiya Chanuka Abeygunasekara, Wishmitha Peiris of S.Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia and Bhagya Jayasooriya of Visakha Vidyalaya Colombo 5 got both words right and consequently qualified for the Top 20. Two spots left and fourteen competitors who got one word right! Both the entrants and audience impatiently remained to see the lucky two contestants who will secure their positions in the Top 20. The competition did not end by two rounds. The seven contestants who got their words correct out of the 14 contestants had to face another round as only two seats were available to be occupied. The number of remaining competitors was put down from 7 to 4 from which Ruchini Jayathilaka of Girls’ High School Kandy was able to spell the given word, “clodhopper”, correct thus entered into the top 20 after a tough couple of rounds.
The remaining three competitors then had to face another round to decide the contestant who will occupy the last remaining spot of the day in the top 20. Mohamed Arkam Zarook of Highlands College Hatton who also took part in last year’s Spellmaster competition was able to go forward in the competition this year as he correctly spelt the given word, “Hare Krishna”.
The 3rd semi final proved to be less competitive, with nine contestants getting both words correct in the 1st round. At the end of the 2nd round, two contestants bowed out misspelling their words “bumph” and “frowsty”, leaving 7 contestants to battle it out in the 3rd round for just five places to the Top 20. Of the seven, the 1st contestant up was Ramith Fonseka of S. Thomas’ Preparatory School Kollupitiya spelling “largesse” correct, the next contestant, Charya Samarakoon of Visakha Vidyalaya Colombo 5, too got her word, “bulwark” right. Followed by, Fahma Fahim of Muslim Central College Kalutara and Rochana Jayasinghe of Girls’ High School Kandy getting their words “inertial” and “latticed” correct.
The next competitor from Ave Maria Convent Negombo misspelled her word “Ides” by adding an “A” in front. With 4 competitors’ already spelling words right, the pressure was on for the remaining two to spell it correct. Bhagya Samarakoon, Charya’s sister, also from Visakha Vidyalaya Colombo 5, received the word “laudatory” and spelled it precisely.
The contestant who followed from Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya was under immense stress seeing that if she misspelled the word the competition would come to an end or if she spelled it right, there would be another round of words to go through. However, she misspelled her word “chiromancer” substituting the “c” at the end with an “s”.
With 15 positions already occupied and 5 seats still in hand, join us this Sunday at 6 pm on Sirasa TV to find out who the next five competitors to enter into the Top 20.
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