Girls dominate Spelling Bee, US Indian 4th

HOUSTON: After seven straight years, a girl bagged the title of the best speller at the United States' prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee in which an Indian American finished fourth.

Katharine "Kerry" Close, 13, from Spring Lake, New Jersey, won the contest last night after rattling off the word "ursprache", which means a "parent language" in an extremely tight competition.

Before this word the eighth grader was also asked to spell the Sanskrit origin word "kundalini", which landed her to the winning word.

"I couldn't believe it. I knew I knew how to spell the word and I was just in shock," said Katharine, when asked how she felt being the champion after the judges declared her the winner following 20 rounds of spelling.

"I couldn't believe I would win." Kerry proved that perseverance indeed pays in the long run as it was her fifth straight final at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Earlier she tied for seventh place in the 2005 national finals.

Kerry goes home with more than $42,000 in cash and prizes, including an engraved trophy cup. This years runner-up was Canadian girl Finola Mei Hwa Hackett, 14, who sailed through all rounds with ease but stumbled on "weltschmerz."

Third-place also went to a girl---Saryn Hooks, 14 from West Alexander Middle School in Taylorsville, N.C., who was disqualified earlier in the evening, then returned to competition after the judges corrected their mistake. Saryn fumbled on "icteritious," which means of a jaundiced color.

Indian American Rajiv Tarigopula, 13, an eighth grader from St. Louis, Missouri bagged the fourth position again this year.

Rajiv sailed with confidence through the final rounds with the words like yizkor, Babism, rubasse but stumbled at the "heiligenschein" by misspelling it as "hylegenschein".

This was Rajiv's fourth and last chance at the national bee, as after finishing eighth grade or attaining 16th year---whichever comes first, students are not eligible to take part in the bee. He was a finalist in 2003 (tied for 48th place), 2004 (tied for 16th place), and 2005 (placed 4th).

The other Indian Americans Nidharshan Subra Anandasivam and the first timer and youngest national finalist Kavya Shivashankar did their best to clinch the trophy by spelling all the right words. They had all the right ingredients of being a champion.

However, there is always that one word which makes and breaks the championship. And it all came down to that one word.

Like Rajiv it was Nidharshan's fourth and last time at the bee. He misspelled the word "paillon" in the ninth final round after spelling various words like collyrium, sphacelated, coryphaeus etc correctly.

Kavya, 10, a fifth grader from Kansas was out in the eighth round of the finals by spelling the word "gematriol" wrongly. Among the hopefuls this year was Samir Patel, 12, a home-schooler from Cohleyville, Texas, who tied for second place last year.

Considered the "rock star" of spelling world, Samir breezed through all the rounds till he was asked to spell "eremacausis," the word that finally knocked him out of contention and brought the remaining contestants down to 13.

Samir seemed disappointed when the judges could not produce answers to his questions about the root of the word, which means the gradual oxidation of organic matter from exposure to air and water. He tried his best to nail the word by asking to hear the definition several times.

Round seven began with 21 contestants, including Samir. Among the 13 advancing to the next round were masters of such words as "boraginaceous," "anacoluthon" and "wapiti." Eight other spellers stumbled on "gigerium," "empyreumatic," "mirliton" and other words.

All 275 competing spellers receive cash prizes ranging from $25 to the $20,000 championship prize.

The national champion also receives an engraved loving cup, a $5,000 cash award from Franklin Electronic Publishers, a $5,000 cash award from LeapFrog Enterprises Inc., a $5,000 scholarship from Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation and from Merriam-Webster, a $2,500 U.S. Savings Bond and a reference library.

All spellers receive a commemorative watch, the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, which consists of a $100 EE U.S. Savings bond, Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, on CD-ROM from Merriam-Webster and a $20 gift certificate from Franklin Electronic Publishers. Franklin will award the top 10 to 12 finishers a limited edition electronic dictionary.

The spelling competition began Wednesday with 275 competitors who qualified to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee by winning locally sponsored bees in their home communities.