A Troy eighth-grader has been eliminated from the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. He almost won outright twice in the championship rounds following errors by Hathwar, but each time flubbed a single letter.
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The late-night duel twice saw Nihar (11) fail to capitalize on mistakes by Jairam (13) and claim the title outright. Both times, Nihar followed up with his own flub.
Nicola Ferguson, alone on the stage in the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, where she was tripped up on the word “psyllium”. It was the third year in a row that the bee ended in a tie.
Nihar has also become the youngest victor of the bee on record. Then watch this clip of Janga responding to his opponent (and eventual co-champion) Jairam Hathwar screwing up the word “drahthaar” (it’s a kind of dog-thanks, Google) and watch the ice water start flowing through his veins.
Bee organizers decided to make changes after the competition ended in a tie the past two years.
Jairam and Nihar are the ninth consecutive winners of South Asian descent.
“We’ve both emailed each other and keep in touch and we’ve gotten to become close friends”, Jairam said.
“He (brother) won the Spelling bee”. The last to win in his first attempt was Pratyush Buddiga in 2002.
Seven of the last 10 finalists were Indian-Americans. Jairam also wants to be a doctor, hoping to attend Harvard University.
In the meantime, Sriram will have to find a new way to one-up his baby brother. The Scripps National Spelling Bee has an age limit of 13, meaning that both Kumar and Lamontagne will get another shot at winning it.
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Siri and Lydia, students of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, take to the streets of DC to see who would make the cut at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
