The spellers who made it into the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee gather on stage in National Harbor, Md., on Thurdsay.
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It was the third year in a row that the bee ended in a tie. At left is Syaal Sharifzad, 12, of Monterey, Calif., and Ella Peters, 13, of San Diego, Calif., is at right.
Cameron Keith (C) of Longmont, Colorado, celebrates with another speller after he correctly spelled his word in round three of the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee May 25, 2016 in National Harbor, Maryland.
It was the third straight year of double winners at the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Snehaa and Sylvie are 13-year-old eighth-graders who have exhausted their bee eligibility. “I’m just in fifth grade”. I don’t think this was his swan song’.
Whoever wins on Thursday, it’s pretty much a guarantee that the tradition of spelling giant words easily won’t end after tonight.
The victor will receive $40,000 from Scripps, which owns television stations, cable networks and newspapers; a $2,500 USA savings bond and a complete reference library from the dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster; and $400 in reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica and a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium.
Nihar is the youngest champion on record.
Bettie was eliminated when she misspelled the word “caliginous”, an adjective meaning misty, dim, obscure or dark. His older brother, Sriram, was a 2014 co-champion. “If you both spell the next word correctly, you will be declared co-champions”. No one will know whether the bee had harder words in reserve, but former spellers said Jairam and Nihar nailed the toughest words in recent memory.
Nihar said he didn’t feel pressure to become the youngest victor for two reasons. First, he never expected to win. Snehaa Ganesh Kumar, Jairam and Nihar were the three remaining spellers. “He’s going to go places”.
‘I don’t like sitting still anyway, but when I get nervous, that, like, triples, ‘ said the 13-year-old.
Nihar and Jairam’s parents are immigrants from south India, continuing a remarkable run of success for Indian-American spellers that began in 1999 with Nupur Lala’s victory, which was later featured in the documentary “Spellbound”.
He hopes to attend Harvard University to study medicine someday so that he can become a physician.
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“My parents told me that they are proud of me and I am happy that I have their support”, she continued.
