Spellers Nihar Saireddy Janga (L) of Austin, Texas and Jairam Jagadeesh Hathwar (R) of Painted Post, New York hold a trophy after the finals of the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee May 26, 2016 in National Harbor, Maryland.
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They ended co-winners when Jairam nailed “feldenkrais”, a method of education, and Nihar aced “gesellschaft”, a type of social relationship.
No sweat for Nihar Janga, who would go on to become the co-champion, and who coincidentally has been called the Steph Curry of the Spelling Bee.
Amazon is making the most of its new sponsorship of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, running four 30-second spots during Thursday’s bee finals broadcast, Mashable reports.
The bee began Tuesday with 284 contestants but was pared to 45 Wednesday evening, after a written test and two rounds of onstage spelling. And he’s only 11 years old. He looked like the strongest speller onstage, stronger even than his eventual co-champion, 13-year-old Jairam Hathwar, a blue-chip speller whose older brother hoisted the trophy two years ago. Nihar, on the other hand, KNEW PRETTY MUCH EVERY WORD ASKED OF HIM OFF THE TOP OF HIS HEAD. Nihar just shook his head. Twice, Jairam missed a word, giving Nihar a chance to seal the title. The boys, who hail from Texas and NY, respectively, are the third duo in a row to share the win.
For the third year in a row, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has ended with two champions. He tied for 22nd place in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2015. This year, she was able to finish third. And the difficulty of the words could be adjusted as necessary. Their one-word response: *lose.
Nihar and Jairam have grown close over the past year, communicating mostly online.
Before receiving his first word to spell in the preliminary round, Padua greeted the official pronouncer, Jacques Bailly, with “hafa adai”, Guam’s traditional greeting. Janga nearly couldn’t believe his victory.
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“I’m just speechless”, Jairam told reporters after the contest that was televised on cable network ESPN and repeatedly saw the audience in a hotel ballroom burst into cheers.
