Maryland (AP) – Eight spellers were better than the dictionary. They were better than anything the Scripps National Spelling Bee could throw at them. And they all ended up with a hand on the trophy. Three of them live here in North Texas. They are Sohum Sukhatankar of Dallas, Abhijay Kodali of Flower Mound and Rohan Raja of Irving.
With eight spellers remaining after three hours of spelling in the prime-time finals, pronouncer Jacques Bailly told the remaining spellers that Scripps only had enough words left to challenge them for three more rounds.
In the most extraordinary ending in the 94-year history of the competition, the bee ended in an eight-way tie on Thursday night. The eight co-champions spelled the final 47 words correctly, going through five consecutive perfect rounds.
The trio outlasted their competitors with Rohan cinching “choumoellier,” a type of cabbage; Sohum enthusiastically spelled “chocalho,” a Brazillian rattle; and Abhijay amazingly tackled “auftaktigkeit,” a music principle meaning all musical phrases begin on an upbeat.
Each will get the full winner’s prize of $50,000 in cash.
(Associated Press)
