KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Lady Luck must be smiling on 12-year-old Atiyah Razlan.

Barely 10 days after receiving an excellent Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah result, the 5A scorer was yesterday declared the winner of the KoKo's Puzzle Contest.

The former SK Subang pupil walked away with RM350 ($150) and a Nestle breakfast cereal hamper at the prize-giving ceremony held at Balai Berita here.

Atiyah plans to use the money to buy school necessities as she looks forward to enrolling in a boarding school next year.

Kashmita Dutt Harpajan Singh, 9, of SK Puteri in Seremban, and Muhammad Farhan Danial Nasri, 12, from SK Kongsi in Balik Pulau, Penang, won the second and third prizes respectively.

Kashmita took home RM250 while Muhammad Farhan received RM150. They also received a hamper each.

The three completed the most precise and creative sentence of "Wholegrain is..." and "unlocked" 10 secret words in the puzzle published in the New Straits Times and Berita Harian education supplements from July 28 to Aug 18.

The contest, organised by Nestle KoKo Krunch and the NST in conjunction with KoKo's Smart Start programme, was opened to children aged 7 to 12.

Forty-seven consolation prizes were also given to winners who were selected out of 5,500 entries.

Five schools -- SK Seri Cheras, SK Bandar Utama (4), SK Kongsi in Penang, SK Seri Yong Peng in Johor and SK Taman Rakyat in Alor Star -- received RM1,000 and a hamper each for the most number of entries.

SK Bandar Utama (4) English teacher N. Umadevi said the school sent 1,000 entries but never expected to win the prize money.

"We will use it to buy books for students who are weak in English."

Nestle Products Sdn Bhd's events manager Yang Kalsom Omar and NST's Newspaper-In-Education manager Mary Chandapillai presented the prizes.