Harini Logan wins US Spelling Bee 2022
HARINI LOGAN, a 14-year-old Indian-American eighth-grader from Texas, spelled 21 words correctly to win the prestigious 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
She defeated Vikram Raju in a marathon, first-of-its-kind spell-off, a format that tested the contestants on how many words they could correctly spell within 90 seconds.
Logan took home the $50,000 (£39,772) cash prize and Scripps Cup trophy on top of awards from Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica.
The teenager spelled 21 out of 26 words correctly, while Raju, a 12-year-old boy from Denver, got 15 out of 19 words right.
She was asked to spell the words tyrolienne, tauromachian, ditalini, charadriiform, sereh, drimys and Powys. Some of the other words she spelled correctly in the spell-off were spealbone, phreatophyte, gaydiang, parison, glochis, saccharose, chorepiscopus, ornithorhynchus, nandubay and malbrouck.
The final two competitors had trouble deciphering their words between rounds 13 and 18. At that point, judges opted to institute the first spell-off, 90 seconds to spell as many words as possible correctly.
However, the judges conferred during a break and ruled that the answer she gave could be correct, since it could mean 'to breed' or 'to swarm.' Head judge Mary Brooks explained the ruling and Logan, who only minutes earlier had learned of her reversed fortunes, returned to her seat on the stage, USA Today reported.
'There was a few minutes in between that were frantic,' Logan was quoted as saying.
Logan nearly did not advance past the word meaning round on Thursday (2) after her answer for 'pullulation' was rejected.
'I was like ‘Wow, I'm out. This is it,' Logan said after she was reinstated in the final round.
'Just so surreal, it's my fourth time at the Bee. This is such a dream, this is my fourth bee and I'm just so overwhelmed,' said Logan on stage holding the trophy.
Of the first-ever spell-off, she said: 'At first I was a little uneasy and I decided to take it in stride … I just had to take a deep breath and tell myself to go out there and do my best and whatever happens, happens.' Vihaan Sibal, a 13-year-old from Texas, finished third while Saharsh Vuppala, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Washington, was fourth.