Kai, 11, takes eighth Countdown win

4:05am Tuesday 14th October 2008

An 11-year-old boy has became the youngest winner of Countdown's "Octochamp" title in 20 years.

Kai Laddiman from Broad Oak, East Sussex, beat Richard Pascoe, a market research manager from Leeds, by 105 points to 55.

This was his eighth win in a row, earning him the game show's Octochamp crown and making him the second youngest Octochamp in the programme's 26-year history.

The record-holder is Allan Saldanha, who became an Octochamp in 1988 at the age of 10.

Kai trounced his opponent after spotting the nine-letter word "thirteens" in the last round. He then took six seconds to solve the conundrum, rearranging the anagram "nicejoint" to form the word "injection."

He grinned happily, sighed with relief and gave a big thumbs up after winning.

He said: "It felt brilliant to win, it was so amazing. I wasn't expecting to go that far. I thought I could but I didn't think I would."

His mother Naomi Laddiman said she was "very proud" of her son.

Kai's victory propelled him to the number two position on the series leader board and earnt him a place in the series final in December.

The series winner will receive a limited edition leather-bound dictionary and encyclopaedia set, which may be taller than Kai if all the volumes were stacked on top of each other.

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