The two found themselves locked in an epic spell-down that lasted over 16 rounds and two glorious hours, before the judges themselves threw in the towel and gave the two young geniuses a shared win.
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Eventually, both won: Nihar celebrated like his favorite football player, Dez Bryant, because he is filled with swag.
Seven of the last 10 finalists were Indian-Americans.
Their winning words? Janga’s was “gesellschaft” (a type of social relationship). “I’m just in fifth grade”. As a younger brother, I found myself rooting for Jairam, because even as a tiny tween he was staring down a life of being incredibly smart, but not as incredibly smart as his older brother who was the champion and not the runner up, and that would’ve been the worst.
Following Thursday’s finale of the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Google Trends tweeted a map showing the top spelling mistakes for each state. Both spellers said they were glad to share the experience of being champions together.
But he stumbled twice, at just the wrong time – or maybe the right time.
Jairam won with Feldenkrais, which means a system of body movements intended to ease tension.
Nihar Janga, an 11-year-old from Austin, dazzled the audience by his grasp of words.
The word enthusiasts will take home $40,000 in cash each, a $2,500 US savings bond, $400 of reference works including a 1768 Encyclopædia Britannica Replica Set (Deluxe Edition) and a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium, plus a trip to New York City to appear on Live with Kelly.
“When I got my first word right, I didn’t know it and I was really happy that I got it right”, Cooper said to a reporter moments after his loss.
Some of the words spelled correctly by the winners were quite mind boggling and left viewers stunned. He just didn’t know the words.
The other American-Indians among the finalists were Rutvik Gandhasri, Sreeniketh Vogoti, Jashun Paluru and Smirithi Upadhyayula.
Snehaa Ganesh Kumar from California, who studies in class 8, had tied for fourth place a year ago.
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In the 37th round of spelling, both spellers misspelled their word, .
