OAN’s James Meyers
3:39 PM – Friday, May 31, 2024
12-year-old Bruhat Soma of Florida won the 96th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night after defeating all seven other finalists and beating his final competitor in the competition’s second-ever spell-off.
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Bruhat spelled an incredible 29 words correctly during the spell-off, while 12-year-old Faizan Zaki of Texas, spelled 20 words correctly.
Spell-offs take place once the competition exceeds a certain time limit and there’s more than one competitor left, according to the Spelling Bee’s rules.
“When they first announced there was a spell-off, my heart was pumping so fast but then I realized – because I was practicing spell-offs for six months – I realized that, ‘Maybe I have a shot at winning,’” Bruhat told CNN’s John Berman and Kate Bolduan on Friday morning. “And I did.”
The winning word that gave Bruhat the title was “abseil.”
He called those 90 seconds “kind of exhilarating.”
“I’m really excited. It’s been my goal for this past year to win, and I’ve been working really hard,” Bruhat said while still on stage, clutching his trophy. “I really can’t describe it, I’m still shaking.”
Many watching noticed Bruhat’s method of “typing” the words while on stage by pantomiming pressing the correct keys for each letter.
According to CNN, Bruhat would practice for 10 hours on weekends and six hours on weekdays.
Over 240 spellers competed in this year’s Spelling Bee this week, and eight made it to the finals on Thursday’s night finals.
Dr. Jill Biden shared a video message before the competition began to cheer on the spellers.
“The President and I can’t wait to cheer you on,” she said in the message.
In addition to Bruhat and Zaki, the finalists included: YY Liang, 12, from New York; Aditi Muthukumar, 13, from Colorado; Shrey Parikh, 12, from California; Ananya Rao Prassanna, 13, from North Carolina; Rishabh Saha, 14, from California; and Kirsten Tiffany Santos, 13, from Texas.
The win comes as Bruhat had previously competed in the Spelling Bee in 2022, when he tied for 163rd place, and in 2023, when he tied for 74th place, according to the competition’s website.
This year’s spellers, all aged 15 or under came from all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Department of Defense Schools in Europe.
The last time there was a spell-off was in 2022, when winner Harini Logan earned her title of queen bee after spelling 22 words in a minute and a half.
The winner will receive $50,000 cash, the official trophy, a reference library from Merriam-Webster and reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica, while all finalists received a monetary prize.
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