iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Indian American Bruhat Soma, 12, of Florida won the 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night, May 30, after defeating seven other finalists and beating his final competitor in the Bee’s second-ever spell-off.
Bruhat spelled 29 words correctly during that spell-off, while 12-year-old Faizan Zaki of Texas, spelled 20 words correctly.
Spell-offs are special rounds activated to determine a champion once the competition exceeds a certain time and there’s more than one competitor left. In a spell-off, the contestant who spells the most words correctly in 90 seconds wins.
Bruhat’s winning word was “abseil,” meaning “a descent in mountaineering by means of a rope looped over a projection above.”
“I’m really excited. It’s been my goal for this past year to win, and I’ve been working really hard,” Bruhat said while still on stage. “I really can’t describe it, I’m still shaking.”
The seventh-grader will take home a $50,000 cash prize, among other rewards.
More than 240 spellers competed in this year’s Spelling Bee this week – and eight made it to Thursday night’s finals.
The finalists included: YY Liang, 12, from New York; Aditi Muthukumar, 13, from Colorado; Shrey Parikh, 12, from California; Ananya Rao Prassanna, 13, from North Carolina; Rishabh Saha, 14, from California; Kirsten Tiffany Santos, 13, from Texas; Bruhat Soma, 12, from Florida; and Faizan Zaki, 12, from Texas.
While all finalists will receive a monetary prize plus other perks, the winner will receive the $50,000 cash, the official trophy, a reference library from Merriam-Webster and reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica, among other buzzworthy prizes.
According to his profile, Bruhat is a multifaceted person with many interests and hobbies. He loves to play and watch basketball, and his favourite player is LeBron James. He also likes to play badminton and Ping-Pong, which clearly shows his passion for sports. Bruhat also has a passion for music, playing snare drum in his middle school band. He is an avid reader who will devour any book on which he can get his hands.
The champions’ parents and sisters were also present at the event and said that they were very proud of their son’s accomplishment. Bruhat mother also shared that her son has a sharp memory and has memorized 80 per cent of the Bhagwat Gita.
The preliminary rounds took place on Wednesday, while the quarterfinals and semifinals followed on Thursday.
