June 6, 2016
U.S.A.
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
National Spelling Bee co-champions include youngest ever
By Ben Nuckols
The Associated Press
O
XON HILL, Md. — The words
were tougher. The final rounds
lasted longer. The result was the
same.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee
ended in a tie for the third consecutive
year, with Jairam Hathwar and Nihar
Janga declared co-champions after a
roller-coaster finish.
Thirteen-year-old Jairam is the younger
brother of the 2014 co-champion, Sriram
Hathwar. Nihar, at age 11, is the youngest
winner of the bee on record.
“I’m just speechless. I can’t say
anything,” Nihar said as he hoisted the
trophy. “I mean, I’m only in fifth grade!”
Scripps made the bee tougher after two
consecutive ties, forcing the last two
spellers to get through three times as
many words as in years past.
Jairam, of Painted Post, New York,
misspelled two words. But both times,
Nihar, of Austin, Texas, followed up with a
miss and the bee continued. Sriram also
got a word wrong during his bee, but his
eventual co-champion, Ansun Sujoe,
flubbed his chance at the solo title.
“I thought it was over, because Nihar is
so strong, such a great speller,” Sriram
said.
Each will receive a trophy and $45,000
in cash and prizes.
Nihar celebrated by imitating the touch-
down dance of his favorite athlete, Dallas
Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant, who sent a
tweet congratulating the young speller.
Jairam, meanwhile, took inspiration from
golfer Jordan Spieth, particularly his
ability to bounce back after bad shots.
“When I missed those two words, I didn’t
let them get to my head, and I just focused
on the next word,” Jairam said.
In another change, bee organizers didn’t
stick to a predetermined list of “champion-
ship words” for the last two or three
spellers. 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.
Because the best spellers become fluent
in Latin and Greek roots, the bee went to
words derived from trickier or more
obscure languages, including Afrikaans,
Danish, Irish Gaelic, Maori, and Mayan.
Jairam’s winning word was Felden-
krais, which is derived from a trademark
and means a system of body movements
intended to ease tension. Nihar won with
gesellschaft, which means a mechanistic
type of social relationship.
Among the words they got right:
Kjeldahl,
Hohenzollern,
juamave,
groenedael, zindiq, and euchologion.
At his best, Nihar wowed the crowd by
shouting out definitions immediately after
the words were announced. He looked
unbeatable. But given two chances to hold
the trophy by himself, he stumbled.
Nihar was in his first bee and would
have had three more years of eligibility,
DecideToDrive.org
THE FINAL WORD. Nihar Janga, 11, of Austin,
Texas, and Jairam Hathwar, 13, of Painted Post, New
York (top photo), hold up the trophy after being
named co-champions at the 2016 Scripps National
Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland. The spell-
ing bee ended in a tie for the third consecutive year,
with Hathwar and Janga declared co-champions after
a roller-coaster finish. In the bottom photo, Janga,
center, and Hathwar, right, approach their siblings
when they rushed the stage to celebrate with their
brothers. (AP Photos/Jacquelyn Martin)
but he can’t compete again since he won.
This was the 89th bee, and while Scripps’
records from early years are incomplete,
the youngest known champion was Wendy
Guey, who won 20 years ago at age 12. The
last to win in his first attempt was
Pratyush Buddiga in 2002.
Nihar said he didn’t feel pressure to
become the youngest winner for two
reasons. First, he never expected to win.
Second, most of the crowd’s attention was
on an even younger speller: six-year-old
Akash Vukoti.
“He did pretty good for a first-grader,”
Nihar said. “He’s going to go places.”
Nihar and Jairam have become close
friends over the past year, but Nihar said
he didn’t consider misspelling on purpose
when he had chances to win. He just didn’t
know the words.
“I wanted to win, but at the same time I
felt really bad for Jairam,” Nihar said.
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.
The bee has produced Indian-American
champions for nine straight years and 14
out of the last 18.
Before 2014, the bee hadn’t declared
co-champions in more than 50 years, but
now, it seems little can be done to avoid it.
The competition concluded shortly before
11:00pm, with the winners having spent
seven hours on stage, and bee executive
director Paige Kimble has said she
wouldn’t consider forcing the final spellers
to keep going indefinitely.
Snehaa Kumar of Folsom, California,
finished third, and Sylvie Lamontagne of
Lakewood, Colorado, was fourth. Both are
13-year-old eighth-graders, meaning this
year was their last chance.