Washington: A seventh-grade Indian-origin student Bruhat Soma from Florida has won the coveted Scripps National Spelling Bee after spelling 29 words correctly in the tie-breaker, taking home a trophy and $50,000 in cash along with other prices. Soma, 12, had already won three consecutive spelling bees before arriving in Washington DC to participate in the prestigious competition.
In a sensational tie-breaker, Soma displayed his extraordinary skill by spelling 29 words correctly in 90 seconds, outpacing Faizan Zaki, who managed to correctly spell 20 words in the lightning round. His championship word was “abseil”, which is defined as “descent in mountaineering by means of a rope looped over a projection above.” The round came after 14 rounds over three days at the national championships.
“Bruhat Soma rules the word! The Champion of the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee! The boy with the unbelievable memory doesn't miss a word all week and takes home the Scripps Cup!” the organisers said. The 12-year-old boy managed to shatter the spell-off record set by Harini Logan in 2022, who spelt 22 out of 26 words correctly, according to the organisers.
An extraordinary display of skill
Soma and Faizan Zaki had 90 seconds to spell as many words as they could from a predetermined list of words while the other speller was sequestered. Soma managed to spell all words correctly in the time period: brouette, adelantado, hyporcheme, bisellium, mycteric, endecha, sericin, nyctalopia, ascham, wenzel, cebell, heautophany, kwazoku, panetiere, sagaie, nachschlage, exorhason, giclee, ashwagandha, puszta, asarotum, scintillante, myrabalanus, sciniph, voussoir, caizinha, ramoneur, aposiopesis and abseil. He only spelt 'porphyrio' incorrectly.
"My heart was pumping so fast when I realised I won... I had a good feeling I would win because I did pretty good, but yeah, you never know. I still couldn’t absorb the moment yet," said Soma after his victory. His forehead was marked with a vermilion tika, a Hindu symbol of power and purity. His parents said that Bruhat memorised about 80 per cent of the sacred Hindu texts, the Bhagavad Gita.
On the other hand, Zaki attempted 25 words but misspelt four of them, further cementing Soma's victory. Adam Symson, president and CEO of The E W Scripps Company, presented Bruhat with the championship trophy. "At just 12 years old, Bruhat impressed with his display of knowledge and composure,” Symson said.
The seventh-grader from Tampa, Florida, received $50,000 in cash and other prizes, while Faizan Zaki from Texas received $25,000. Shrey Parikh and Ananya Prassanna of North Carolina were tied for third place and received $12,500 each. The competition ensured the dominance of the Indian community in the spelling bee competitions with five Indian American finalists.
Bruhat Soma's road to glory
Bruhat Soma's father Srinivas Soma is originally from Nalgonda in Telangana. This was the 12-year-old boy's third time participating in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. He tied for 74th in 2023 and tied for 163rd in 2022. Described as a multifaceted man with several hobbies, the seventh-grader had previously won the Words of Wisdom Bee and SpellPundit Bee before arriving in Washington. He also won the first-ever online bee emceed by Dev, last year’s Scripps champion.
As the competition edged towards a tie-breaker after slow progress, Soma felt the pressure to perform given that he hadn’t lost a spelling bee in eight months. He had been rehearsing the spell-off every day for six months. “I always want to win. And this was, like, my main goal,” he said. “It didn’t matter if I won all those other bees. This is what I was aiming for. So I’m just really happy that I won this.”
Bruhat is the second straight champion from the Tampa Bay area, and his victory means 29 of the last 35 spelling champs have been Indian American. Indian-American Dev Shah won last year's Bee by correctly spelling "psammophile." Harini Logan had won the championship in 2022. The experiences of first-generation Indian Americans and their spelling bee champion children illustrate the economic success and cultural impact of the nation’s second-largest immigrant group, according to a report.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the nation's largest and longest-running educational programme, having been launched in 1925. It is a high-profile, high-pressure endurance test as much as a nerd spelling match and spellers spend months preparing for it. In all, there were 245 spellers who came to participate in this year's competition sixty-five spellers had previously competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
(with inputs from agencies)
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