Two Indian teens lift US Spell Bee trophy

Washington

Jairam Jagadeesh Hathwar, 13, and Nihar Saireddy Janga, 11, jointly lifted the trophy after being declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee as the tense final ended in a tie for the third year in a row. Seven of the last 10 finalists were Indian-Americans despite a tougher competition this year that witnessed longer final rounds.

Fifth grader Nihar is from Texas, while seventh grader Jairam is from New York. Nihar has also become the youngest winner of the bee on record. In the penultimate 24th round, Nihar spelled the word ‘gesellschaft’ correctly, while Jairam spelled the word ‘Feldenkrais’ correctly. This is the ninth successive year that Indian- Americans won the  Scripps Spelling Bee and 13th in the last 16 years.