'Maradona' arrived at malaysiakini 's office yesterday to claim his reward for making the most successful predictions in the recently concluded World Cup Challenge.

However, this 'Maradona' is not the Argentine soccer legend, but rather Abdullah Abdul Hamid who prophesied his way to a four-day-and-three-night flight and hotel package to Sydney, Australia worth RM2,500 courtesy of Mutual Tours and Travel.

The cybercafe owner ( far right ) from Kelantan used the handle 'Maradona' to join malaysiakini 's World Cup Challenge in which participants had to predict correctly the outcome of all the 64 matches to win the contest.

Although none of the predictions were 100 percent accurate, Abdullah's came the closest.

The self-proclaimed avid reader of malaysiakini said his secret to success was his faith in Asian and African teams. "That and a whole lot of luck," he added.

The second prize a three-day, two-night trip to Langkawi courtesy of Paradise Travel went to Dr Norrakiah while third prize winners Kashminder Singh, Ahmad Ghuzal and Anar Fazal received an EZ Cam PC camera each, courtesy of MTEC Computers.

Kashminder ( left ), a publisher, said he was so 'desperate' to take up the challenge that he rushed home from the delivery theatre after his wife gave birth, just to get online on the competition's closing day.

The competition kicked off on May 1 and the final whistle blew on May 31.

When congratulating the winners, malaysiakini 's chief executive officer Premesh Chandran ( above right ) said: "Our biggest asset is really our readers. Malaysiakini is what it is today because of them."

Meanwhile, Khoo Hock Aun ( top picture, far left ) of Mutual Tour and Travel and OmnisAsia said his decision to sponsor the competition was a personal commitment to support businesses such as malaysiakini .

"A concept such as a web-based paper has to be supported as much as possible," he said, adding that the exchange of information over the Internet is invaluable.