For the 11th consecutive year, Indian-origin children have monopolised the National Spelling Bee crown with Karthik Nemmani winning the 2018 championship, beating out five others in the last rounds.
Nemmani, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Texas, spelt "koinonia" correctly for his victory on Thursday night after second place winner, 12-year-old Naysa Modi, got "bewusstseinslage" wrong.
"It's what I've been dreaming of for years now," Nemmani said.
He takes home $40,000 and a trophy from Scripps Bee, which is sponsored by the EW Scripps media group, in addition to a $2,500 cash prize from Merriam-Webster, the dictionary publisher,
Congratulations to Karthik Nemmani, #Speller471, the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion. He correctly spelled "koinonia" to win the title. #SpellingBee pic.twitter.com/IyjGWmKg3W
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
#Speller471 Karthik Nemmani is the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion. Congratulations! #SpellingBee pic.twitter.com/ndb0uGCNPK
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
Last week Indian-origin Venkat Ranjan, won the National Geographic Bee, which carries a $50,000 scholarship, beating out two others.
The second and third places in the contest, which tests knowledge of geography, were won by Anoushka Buddhikot and Vishal Sareddy.
This year 515 contestants participated in the National Spelling Bee championship, the biggest number so far because of rule changes that widened the pool beyond the local champions and also included those without sponsors, who are usually newspapers.
Rohan Raja likes watching anime and Jackie Chan movies while working on his ninja-esque spelling skills. #SpellingBee #Speller460 pic.twitter.com/2lltUlmdI2
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
While Sravanth Malla's family and friends may be cheering him on, he was cheering on his favorite NBA team, the @cavs earlier this week. #SpellingBee #Speller315 pic.twitter.com/pahcyrW0Ax
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
The contest held in Oxon Hill near Washington was televised nationally on the sports channel ESPN.
Indian-origin children have won the Spelling Bee championship for 11 continuous years since Sameer Mishra won in 2008.
Naysa Modi's show of the moment is @CW_Riverdale. All of you Team Jughead fans out there, Naysa is with you. @colesprouse #SpellingBee #Speller447 pic.twitter.com/laMcHPMLII
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
In 1985, Balu Natarajan became the first Indian-origin child to win the Spelling Bee and 17 others have followed him.
The Spelling Bee is not merely a memory test of exotic words as it also requires learning about the origins of words and the languages they are derived from.
A big @Nike fan, last year Shruthika Padhy rocked a pair of Kyrie 3 shoes. This year she sports Jordan 1s. #SpellingBee #Speller290 pic.twitter.com/pJEWkJ2yPh
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
Almost a cult among Indian-Americans, Spelling Bees are organised by community organisations and by businesses wanting to reach them.
It's Abhijay Kodali's first time at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and although he's found himself in the Finals, he didn't expect to make it this far. We say keep doing you, Abhijay! You got this. #SpellingBee #Speller484 pic.twitter.com/sVUX20APJA
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
Nemmani's cousin, Srivatsav who was a contestant, but didn't get to the finals, said: "I knew he was going to win. He studied for hours and hours and hours, countless hours."
"Koinonia" is "an intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community", according to National Spelling Bee website.
The site defined "bewusstseinslage" as "a state of consciousness or a feeling devoid of sensory components".
With words like "bewusstseinslage," the dictionary is not here to play. #SpellingBee
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
Navneeth Murali enjoys spending his rare moments of downtime watching clips of the @colbertlateshow on @YouTube. #SpellingBee #Speller279 pic.twitter.com/vy9Rvw47Fs
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
Tara Singh is starting a nonprofit organization called the Bluegrass Literacy Project to help improve English literacy in Kentucky. She'll provide free etymology workshops — first up is a Harry Potter-themed workshop. @jk_rowling #SpellingBee #Speller133 pic.twitter.com/y4ahFp5UYd
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
Anisha Rao's movie of the moment is Kung Fu Panda. Making quite the entrance at this year's Bee, it's no wonder her favorite line is "never under-estimate the impact of dramatic entrance!" #SpellingBee #Speller80 pic.twitter.com/4c56ckpmor
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
Aisha Randhawa plays the keyboard in jazz band. Lately, she's been regaling her family with fairly regular performances of the perennial classic, Ain't No Mountain High Enough. #SpellingBee #Speller50 pic.twitter.com/ZALL73557E
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2018
Given the difficulty of the word that tripped Modi, Nemmani said modestly: "She deserves the trophy just as much if not more than I did."
The third through sixth places went to Abhijay Kodali, Jashun Paluru, Navneeth Murali and Sravanth Malla.
