Two Indian American 8th grade students from Kansas and Missouri were both named champions of the 88th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee (NSB) on Thursday after judges ran out of words for them to spell.
Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, of Chesterfield, Miss. correctly spelled "nunatak" and Vanya Shivashankar, 13, of Olathe, Kan. correctly spelled "scherenschnitte" in the last round to end their half-hour battle in a tie, according to the result of the contest posted on the NSB website.
There were also two champions in last year's NSB.
Venkatachalam and Shivashankar battled for 10 rounds in the finals, with both correctly spelling 25 championship words like caudillismo, thamakau, scytale, Bruxellois, pyrrhuloxia and thamaku.
Shivashankar is the first champion who is a sibling of another champion, as herr sister, Kavya, 19, won the spelling bee in 2009.
"This is a dream come true, I can't believe I'm up here. I've wanted this for such a long time. I'm dedicating this (win) to my grandma because she passed away in October of 2013, and all she really wanted was her grandkids to do so well. And I hope I make her happy with this," said Shivashankar after the win, The Kansas City Star reported,
The 8th grader from California Trail Middle School joined the contest for the fifth and final time. She also competed in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014. She placed 10th in 2012, tied for 5th place in 2013 and tied for 13th place last year.
Venkatachalam described the win as a "culmination of all the hard work I have put in," according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Venkatachalam, an 8th grader from Parkway West Middle School, is the first St. Louis-area winner since George Thampy in 2000. It was his second time reaching the finals in the NSB in the past four consecutive years of joining the competition. He finished third place last year.
More than 11 million students took part in local and state spelling bees nationwide and the winners, 285 in all, qualified for the preliminary stage held this week in the Maryland Ballroom of the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.
The spelling bee champions are sharing the prize of $30,000 in cash, an engraved trophy, another $5,000 cash prize from Words With Friends, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond, a reference library from Merriam-Webster and $1,100 worth of reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica.
