KARACHI, Feb 7: School students from Islamabad stole the final rounds of "Dawn in Education National Spelling Bee" championship by managing the top most position in two age categories on Monday.

Out of 162,100 aspirants 27 students were selected for the national rounds after district and city rounds held at Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on different dates.

Two students of EMS High School, Islamabad, Saifullah Khan, and Hashir Kiani of St Mary's Academy, Islamabad, were adjudged as the champions in the 9-11 and 15-17 age categories respectively, while another student from Karachi, Yusra of Ladybird Grammar School got the first prize in 12-14 age category.

Competitors showed their enthusiasm and talent in various sessions of the competition, which were supervised by different panel of judges comprising faculty members from the University of Karachi and College of Business Management.

The contest helped the aspirants to develop the habit of reading and ability to retain things as well as seriousness required towards studies. Students were given general rounds and mystery rounds to spell the words already enlisted in the organizers' book. However, most of the positions were decided after sudden death rounds.

The competition in the age group of 12-14 was a neck and neck where Yusra won the first position by beating her close rival Muhammad Bin Jamil of St Mary's Academy, Islamabad. Yusra responded 16 questions in the sudden death round and finally got the over all 54 points.

In the age group of 15-17, Hashir Kiani of Islamabad got a clear first position in the routine rounds. Some of the participants in the round failed to spell out the words like finite, erudite, kyle, hectare, orchestrate, prevaricate, hollandaise, musty, essayist, restitution, kowtow, and impermeable.

The details of position winners in three age categories are as follows:

9-11 age group: Champion-Saifullah Khan, EMS High School, Islamabad; 1st runners up-Haider Humayun of Beaconhouse School, Defence Branch, Lahore and 2nd runners up-Haris Bin Aamin of Beaconhouse School, Defence Branch, Lahore.

12-14 age group: Champion-Yusra, Ladybird Grammar School, Karachi; 1st runners up-Muhammad Bin Jamil of St Mary's Academy, Islamabad; and 2nd runners up-Waleed Hassan of St Mary's Academy, Islamabad.

15-17 age group: Champion- Hashir Kiani of St Mary's Academy, Islamabad; 1st runners up-Taha Rafiq of BVS Parsi High School; and 2nd runners up-Mansoorun Nabi of St Mary's Academy, Islamabad.