PICS: Indian Americans declared co-champions of Scripps Spelling Bee

For the first time in 52 years, in the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition, two boys were co-champions -- and you bet, they were Indian Americans.

Sriram Hathwar, 14, an eighth-grader from Painted Post, New York and Ansun Sujoe, 13, a seventh-grader from Fort Worth, Texas, shared the title after they went head-to-head in the final round, and all but exhausted the 25 designated championship words.

The only time before 1962, there had been co-champions in 1950 and 1957, and now Hathwar and Sujoe had once again created history.

At the end of the 10th round, there were only four competitors remaining, and all four were Indian Americans, out of the dozen finalists on May 29, who had emerged from the 281 semi-finalists from all across the country and also internationally who had descended in Washington at the start of the week for the competition at the National Harbor resort in the DC suburb of Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Besides Hathwar and Sujoe, the other two were Gokul Venkatachalam and Ashwin Veeramani.

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This once again clearly manifested that Indian American kids not only now dominated the Spelling Bee but virtually owned the competition the contest for the past decade and a half. The success of the Indian American kids in the Spelling Bee, came close on the heels of Akhil Rekulapelli, 13, of Dulles, Virginia, who just a week earlier had woN the National Geography Bee and a $50,000 scholarship, and several other prizes (India Abroad, May 30).

Although Hathwar and Sujoe hoisted the single Scripps trophy, organisers said each of them would be presented with a single trophy to take home in addition to $30,000 each in cash, $2,500 government bonds, among other prizes.

It seemed that Hathwar, a veteran of the Bee and making his fifth appearance and last year had finished third, who was the favorite to win the championship would easily get the better of Sujoe who had just made the finals this year after missing out in the semi-finals last year.

But he misspelled ‘corpsbruder’ (a close comrade) and Sujoe now had to spell ‘antegropelos’ (waterproofed leggings) to create a major upset and take the title. Sujoe however tripped up and spelt this word wrong and Hathwar was back in the game.

He then spelt ‘stichomythia’ which means dialogue especially of altercation or dispute delivered in alternating lines -- as in a Greek drama -- correctly.

Pronounciation judge Dr Jacques Bailly then said, “Ansun, if you spell this word correctly, we will declare you and Sriram co-champions. Please come to the microphone together.’

Sujoe then had to spell ‘feuilleton’ which means a part of a European newspaper or magazine devoted to material designed to entertain the general reader, or a feature section, and it seemed as if this word would be his waterloo as he said, ‘Ah, whatever,’ before he started spelling when he was into his last 30 seconds and the red light signal went up.

He didn’t seem confident that he would get it right, but he did, and almost immediately confetti began to rain down on the stage and both were declared co-champions.

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The finals were carried live by ESPN -- as it has done for the past several years, and interviewed immediately by one of its reporters after they had hoisted the trophy together and posed for pictures.

“For me, it’s a dream come true,” Hathwar said. Acknowledging his co-champion, Sujoe, Hathwar said, “We both knew the competition was against the dictionary and not against each other.” Sujoe said, “I was happy when I made the finals and now I am even happier now that we have become co-champions.”

He acknowledged, “I was pretty disappointed last year, (but) I made a furious comeback this year. I studied a lot.”

According to the Spelling Bee press release, Angel Sujoe, Ansun's mother, said the Bee championship had been his dream since second grade. She was not as confident as Ansun, she said, but he was convinced he would succeed.

“I wasn't that strong in my faith. My son had it," she said. "I didn't expect this at all.” Throughout the competition, Angel said, she kept her eyes closed. “I was just concentrating on prayer," she said. “Help him to get the words that he knows and help him to present it right.”

Before the competition, Hathwar had called his grandmother, Bhageerathi Hathwar, and asked her to come from India to watch the Bee. She had last watched Sriram compete in 2008. Bhageerathi said Sriram had taught her how to play Scrabble and helped her learn English.

“The trip was all worth it,” she said. “Both of them were so good. ...God is great, I tell you.”

When her grandson was declared a co-champ, Bhageerathi -- in a colorful sari -- could be seen running toward him on to the stage and then giving him a big hug.

Once there are three spellers left in a round, the next round begins with a 25-word list. Ordinarily, a winner is declared if one speller misspells and the remaining speller correctly spells two words in a row. If no winner is declared before the list has been exhausted -- or there are not enough words left for two consecutive spellings -- co-champions are announced.

Venkatachalam, making his third appearance at the Bee, got knocked out when he misspelled ‘Kierkegaardian,’ and Veeramani -- whose sister Anamika Veeramani won the Bee in 2010, was eliminated in the earlier round.