It was close, but Georgia is out of the national spelling bee
Sumedh Garimella came oh so close in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, but Georgia’s last standing champion didn’t make it to the final round after semi-final competition Thursday morning.
The 14-year-old from Duluth correctly spelled “gelid,” as in icy cold, in Round 5, which started at 10 a.m. Soon after, in Round 6, he nailed “vaporetto,” a small steamboat shuttle on the canals of Venice.
Yet his accumulated points during all the stages of competition, including rounds of computer testing, weren’t enough to get him into tonight’s 8 p.m. final. He clapped politely with the other 46 semifinalists when the last of the dozen finalists was named. All of them are masters of spelling, having emerged from some 11 million kids who competed in classrooms across the country.
Follow the competition at spellingbee.com.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
