Washington: (IANS) Evan M. O'Dorney,
13, a California schoolboy won the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest
after early elimination of this year's favorite, Samir Patel, an Indian
American contesting for the fifth time in a row.
Crowned champion on prime-time national television in the 80th edition
of the contest, O'Dorney will receive $35,000 cash, a $5,000
scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond and a complete set of reference
works.
While O'Dorney made it to the top in the 13th round correctly spelling
"serrefine", Patel, one of the 29 spellers of Indian origin among a
record 286 contestants, tripped on 'clevis', a type of fastener. He had
finished third, 27th, second and 14 in the previous editions.
But three other Indian American kids advanced to the final round of the
contest that attracted 10 million contestants at the state level this
year.
Prateek Kohli, 13, New York fell in the ninth round when he failed to
get "Oberek" right after correctly spelling Martian, convivial,
diocesan, onychomycosis and saimin.
Son of Monica Kohli, a software engineer, and Vimal Kohli, a senior
operations supervisor, Prateek believes himself to be the best speller
in his family, although his mother claims to have been the best in her
school.
Kavya Shivashankar, 11, from Kansas was eliminated in the seventh round
going wrong on "Cilice" after correctly spelling enumerated, tachymeter,
Gruyère, porphyry, and auslaut in the earlier rounds.
Nithya P. Vijayakumar, 13, from Michigan also tripped in the seventh
round as he failed to get "Pelorus" correct after making it to the final
with therapeutic, kinetic, zeugma, grego and coquillage.
Earlier, Sameer Mishra, Samir Gupta and Abhinav Venkat fell in the sixth
round while Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan was eliminated in the fifth round
with Samir Patel.
It was the last chance for Patel who had become a familiar face on the
contest finishing third four years ago. But in 2004, he stumbled on the
word "corposant" and tied for 27th. He came close in 2005 but was
flummoxed by "Roscian" and placed second. Last year, he failed to spell
"eremacausis", forcing him to settle for a tie for 14th.
Kunal Sah, the 13-year-old Indian American boy who hoped a strong
showing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest might somehow
reunite him with his deported parents, was eliminated in the preliminary
rounds itself.
Children of Indian origin have figured prominently in the contest since
1985 when Balu Natarajan, a 13-year-old son of Indian American parents,
won by correctly spelling the word "milieu".
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