Austin boy shares title in spelling bee
An 11-year-old Austin boy correctly spells “gesellschaft” to earn the co-championship of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
OXON HILL, Md. — An 11-year-old Austin boy correctly spelled “gesellschaft” to earn the co-championship of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
It was the third year in a row that the Spelling Bee ended with co-champions.
Nihar Janga, who was sponsored by Houston Public Media, ended in a tie with Jairam Hathwar of New York. Jairam, 13, from Painted Post, N.Y., correctly spelled “Feldenkrais” in the final round of the 25-word championship round, putting the pressure on Nihar.
Nihar twice had opportunities to win the title outright after Jairam misspelled words, but he also followed with misspellings. Nihar, who had emerged as one of the crowd favorites, had gotten the only perfect score on the written test.
The event, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor, Md., began this week with 284 contestants from around the world. By Thursday morning, it resumed with 45 finalists who were whittled down to just 10 for the evening championship, aired live on ESPN.
Less than an hour into Thursday night’s championship, Cooper Komatsu, 13, of California, who with a teammate won the 2016 North American School Scrabble Championship, was taken out. The killer word: “illicium.” Fans loved Cooper, who placed 11th last year. He barely got his first word right Thursday evening — “myoclonus” — pausing at length between letters.
Other finalists included Jashun Paluru of West Lafayette, Ind.
Three international spellers were among the 45 finalists, but none made the top 10.
After the National Spelling Bee ended in a tie the last two years, Scripps decided that the final three spellers would have to spell up to 75 words, instead of 25, and the championship words weren’t chosen in advance. That way, bee judges can use words that are as tough as necessary.