A non-resident Indian in England has won an English spelling competition held by the British Broadcasting Corporation, beating about 100,000 competitors, including native speakers of the language.
Gayathri Kumar, 13, from Ormskirk near Liverpool, won the first Hard Spell Competition, defeating another Indian, Nisha, by spelling the word 'dachshund' on Sunday night.
Gayathri spelt such diverse and difficult words as apocalypse, mezzanine, troglodyte, claustrophobia, geisha and resuscitate to become Britain's best young speller.
She won a holiday, media equipment worth £5,000 for her school and the Hard Spell trophy, which was presented to her by BBC ONE's anchorman Eamonn Holmes.
"When I arrived at Television Centre I was so tense, I was just numb, and I didn't even think I'd be going through to the finals," Gayathri said.
Five finalists were whittled down from spellers who took part in school competitions back in September.
Gayathri, who is passionate about reading and writing, said, "I really wanted to win Hard Spell because I knew it would make my dad really proud, and I'd like to go on a holiday to somewhere like Russia or Brazil."
Gayathri's top tip for spellers and future Hard Spell contestants is to 'write down the words you get wrong and carry the list around with you, looking at it when you have spare time'.
