Oxon Hill (US): Karthik Nemmani, a 14-year-old Indian-American boy of McKinney, Texas, won the 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee, taking home a $40,000 cash prize after beating another Indian American who defeated him at his countywide bee in February. Karthik had to spell two words correctly to seal the title. His winning word was “koinonia,” which means Christian fellowship or communion. He defeated 12-year-old Naysa Modi who misspelled the word “Bewusstseinslage” - a state of consciousness or a feeling devoid of sensory components - in the first championship round. Karthik is the 14th consecutive Indian-American champion, and 19 of the past 23 winners have had Indian heritage.
Karthik and Naysa were the last two standing of the initial 516 spellers. “I had confidence, but I didn’t really think it would happen,” Nemmani said after receiving his trophy. “I’m just really happy. This has just been a dream come true.” Nemmani’s loss to Modi at the county level would have disqualified him for the national bee but he took advantage of a new programme called RSVBee, which allows spellers to pay to compete in the national bee.
“In tough regions... a lot of kids have a lot of potential, but they aren’t able to ... qualify,” said Nemmani, who spent at least four hours a day studying for the bee. His father, Krishna Nemmani, an immigrant from Hyderabad, India, said his son had worked hard “every day and night.”
More than a dozen former champions were in the audience, including 1985 winner Balu Natarajan, whose son, Atman Balakrishnan, 12, made it to the third round of competition last week. It marked the first time the child of a previous champion competed in the national finals.
Nemmani attributed his success to his father and his spelling coach. He said he would spend the $40,000 on college, where he hopes to study something related to technology.
