Thirteen-year-old Arvind Mahankali of New York has won the Scripps National Spelling bee.
Mahankali correctly spelled his final word “knaidel” to win the 86th tournament that tests brain power, composure and, for the first time, knowledge of vocabulary.
He takes home $30,000 in cash and prizes along with a huge, cup-shaped trophy.
For the first time, competitors had to know the definitions of some of the words they spelled. The eleven finalists advanced from a field of 281 contenders based on a combination of a performance onstage and their performance on a computerized spelling and vocabulary tests.
He outlasted several spelling bee veterans to win.
Finalists included several spelling bee veterans, but as the night wore on they were down to four contestants after more than 2 hours of competition.
Mahankali finished third last year and in 2011, tripped up both times by words of German origin. A word derived from French and old Catalan — “galere” — nearly bounced the superstar speller as the tense final round wore on.
One of the favorites, he shifted his body back and forth and stroked his chin before correctly spelling “galere” — meaning a group of people with a common quality or relationship — but with only seconds to spare.
The win by Mahankali continues the recent tradition of Indian-American winners. There now have been six in a row and 11 of 14, a run that began in 1999 when Nupur Lala captured the title in 1999 and was later featured in the documentary “Spellbound.”
This was the first year that a computerized vocabulary test helped determine the finalists.
The 11 finalists were culled from 42 semifinalists Thursday afternoon, with spellers advancing based on a formula that combined their scores from a computerized spelling and vocabulary test with their performance in two onstage rounds.
The show-stealer during the semifinals was 14-year-old Amber Born of Marblehead, Mass., who has wanted to be a comedy writer ever since she saw the pilot to “Seinfeld.” The bee’s growing popularity is reflected in an ESPN broadcast that gets more sophisticated each year, so Amber got to watch herself featured on a televised promo that also aired on the jumbo screen inside the auditorium.
She then approached the microphone and, referring to herself, deadpanned: “She seemed nice.”
The crowd laughed and applauded. Amber turned serious once she heard her word — “pediculicide” — but she spelled it correctly and did a little hop as she headed back to her seat.
In the next round, Amber asked pronouncer Jacques Bailly: “Please give me something I know.” Given the word “malacophilous” and told it means “adapted to pollination by snails,” she replied: “I don’t know if that’s possible.”
She hid her face with her placard, trying to visualize the word. When she guessed the correct spelling, she leaped all the way back to her seat and advanced to the finals.
Pranav Sivakumar, 13, of Tower Lakes, Ill., in his final year of eligibility, greeted Bailly in Latin and was relieved to make it past the semifinals after missing a word in the same round in both 2011 and 2012.
“I don’t think I’m nervous anymore,” Pranav said. “The semifinals was always the stumbling block for me.”
The buzz at this year’s bee was the introductory of vocabulary for the first time. Some of the spellers liked it, some didn’t, and many were in-between, praising the concept but wondering why it wasn’t announced at the beginning of the school year instead of seven weeks before the national bee.
“It was kind of a different challenge,” said finalist Vismaya Kharkar, 14, of Bountiful, Utah. “I’ve been focusing my studying on the spelling for years and years.”
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