Harini Logan, of San Antonio, has won the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee after a first-ever “spell-off” was required for a champion to emerge in the extremely close competition.
Logan, 14, takes home $50,000 from Scripps, plus further money prizes and reference works from Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica.
She beat Vikram Raju, 12, of Denver on Thursday after their neck-and-neck competition required a “spell-off” to decide the winner. The second-place prize is $25,000.
They claimed the top spots in the competition that pitted spellers ages seven to 15 from across the United States and as far away as Guam for the 94th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. This year’s competition was held at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC.
In the spell-off, each competitor had 90 seconds to spell as many words correctly as possible. Raju went first and spelled 15 words correctly of the 19 he attempted.
Logan, who waited for her turn in a sound-proof area, emerged to spell 21 words correctly of the 26 she attempted.
Both had the same list of words read to them, ringing a bell to signal they were ready to advance to the next word.
Logan is an eighth-grade student at The Montessori School of San Antonio. This was her fourth and final year as a Bee contender.
Last year, when Zaila Avant-garde, 14, from New Orleans correctly spelled “Murraya,” a genus of plants, she became the first African American to win the prestigious competition that began in 1925.
The Bee was televised live. Play-by-play commentary heightens the excitement as contestants rack their brains to come up with the correct spellings for often obscure words.
Discover more from LN247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
