Karthik Nemmani , a 14-year-old Indian-American boy, today won the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling "koinonia", maintaining the dominance of the community in the prestigious competition for the 11 consecutive year.
An eighth-grader from McKinney, Texas, Karthik won the spelling competition after numerous rounds against Naysa Modi, another Indian-American student.
Karthik and Naysa were the last two standing of the initial 516 spellers.
"I had confidence, but I didn't think it would really happen," Karthik said, adding that he knew he would correctly spell the word meaning Christian fellowship or communion as soon as he heard it.
Karthik received USD 40,000 and a trophy from the Scripps Bee, a USD 2,500 cash prize (and a complete reference library) from Merriam-Webster, trips to New York and Hollywood as part of a media tour, and a pizza party for their school, the Washington Post reported.
Forty-one spellers advanced to the finals yesterday out of a field of 516 by far the largest in the 93-year history of the competition at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Maryland to battle it out for the title of champion.
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The 16 finalists ranged in age from 11 to 14 and included nine girls and seven boys.
Karthik said he went 20 rounds toe-to-toe with Naysa in their local Bee, only to be invited to the National Spelling Bee through the RSVBee programme where they would again square off on stage, the Spelling Bee said in a statement.
"It's pretty cool to be on stage. It's what I've been dreaming of for years now," he was quoted as saying by the statement.
It's a lot of work, Karthik said, but worthwhile.
"I had confidence," he said. "I wouldn't say I expected it. It was a dream come true."
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