Spelling bee ends in tie for 1st time since '62

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http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/11004136/scripps-national-spelling-bee-ends-stalemate-first-1962

OXON HILL, Md. -- The dreaded bell that signals a misspelled word tolled for each of the last two spellers in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. But in an exhilarating twist, it wasn't the end for either of them.

Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York, and Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas, got back-to-back words wrong, each giving a reprieve to the other. Neither stumbled again, and a dozen words later, they ended up as co-champions of the bee, the first tie in 52 years.

"The competition was against the dictionary, not against each other,'' Sriram said after both were showered with confetti onstage. "I'm happy to share this trophy with him.''

Ansun said afterward that he knew the word Sriram got wrong: "corpsbruder,'' a close comrade. Ditto for 14-year-old Sriram, who said he was familiar with "antigropelos,'' which means waterproof leggings. That word dashed 13-year-old Ansun's chance for an upset victory.

After their misses, the boys staged a riveting duel, plowing through the toughest words the bee had to offer: Skandhas. Hyblaean. Feijoada. Augenphilologie. Sdrucciola. Holluschick. Thyemelici. Paixtle. Encaenia. Terreplein.

Finally, only four of the 25 championship words remained. Two had to be kept in reserve so the bee wouldn't end with an incorrect spelling.

Sriram's last word was stichomythia, a theatrical term for dialogue representing an altercation and delivered in alternating lines.

Sriram rarely appeared flustered, nodding confidently when he got a word he knew. Ansun was more nervous and demonstrative, no more so than on the word that gave him a share of the title: "feuilleton,'' the features section of a European newspaper or magazine.

Upon hearing the word, Ansun opened his mouth wide, grimaced and rolled his eyes. As the stage lights turned red, signaling he had 30 seconds left, he said, "Ah, whatever!'' before beginning to spell.

They became the fourth co-champions in the bee's 89-year history and the first since 1962. Although they hoisted a single trophy together onstage, each will get one to take home, and each gets the champion's haul of more than $33,000 in cash and prizes.

TeamMoose Posts : 6545 Join date : 2013-07-19

Yeah, heard about this, and both of them were STILL Indian. Funny

This was sort of the deal when I won the school spelling bee last year, it was down to me and this Asian dude, and we kept going back-to-back spelling correctly. They were about to call us a tie but they decided to have one more round, and then I beat that motherfucker. walk