Indian-American children swept the US’s hugely-popular Scripps National Spelling Bee yet again this year, with the organisers declaring two of them co-champions after an extended tie that exhausted the selected pool of championship words. Sriram Hathwar, 14, from New York, and Ansun Sujoe, 13, from Texas, lifted the trophy and won the cash prize of $30,000.
It was for the first time in 52 years that two spellers were declared co-champions – and only the fourth time in the 89-year history of the Spelling Bee.The ones to finish third and fourth in the riveting contest were also Indian-American boys — Gokul Venkatachalam of Missouri and Ashwin Veeramani of Ohio.Over the past decade and a half, Indian-American children have made it a habit of winning the Bee with unfailing regularity. This year’s victory is the seventh straight win for them. Beginning with Nupur lala in 1999, children belonging to the community have won 11 of the 15 crowns.
“The competition was against the dictionary, not against each other. I’m happy to share the trophy with him (Ansun),” said Sriram, who had finished third last year and was the favourite to win the title this time.
His championship word was “stichomythia”, which means dialogue especially of altercation or dispute delivered in alternating lines (as in classical Greek drama). Along the way, he dealt with words like “feijoada”, “sdrucciola”, “thymelici” and “encaenia”.Ansun’s championship word was “feuilleton”, a part of a European newspaper or magazine devoted to material designed to entertain the general reader, or a feature section. Prior to that, he disposed of teasers like “augenphilologie”, “holluschick”, “paixtle” and “terreplein”.
Both the contestants misspelled one word. As Sriram misspelled “corpsbruder”, it was a chance for Ansun to win the Bee, but he too got erred with “antegropelos”.In all 281 spellers from across the US and seven other countries competed for the title.Hathwar, an eighth grader from Painted Post, New York, has been a Bee veteran, having tried his luck over the past four years. For Sujoe, a seventh grader from Fort Worth, Texas, it was the second outing.
It was to be the final appearance for Hathwar, so he called his grandmother, Bhageerathi Hathwar, to come all the way from India. She did. On Thursday night, she rushed to the stage as Sriram and Ansun hoisted the trophy. “The trip was all worth it. Both of them were so good....God is great, I tell you,” she exclaimed.