Shah, a student at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle
School, had correctly, and swiftly, spelled "bathypitotmeter" in
the 14th round, but under spelling bee rules needed to land one
more word to be declared winner.
Shah, who was crowned champion in a hail of confetti before
being joined on stage by his parents and other relatives, takes
home $50,000 cash from E.W. Scripps Co, the bee's sponsor, plus
further monetary prizes and reference works from Encyclopedia
Britannica and Merriam-Webster.
The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary is the official
dictionary of the competition.
Dev, whose hobbies include reading, tennis, playing the cello
and solving math problems, tied for 51st place in the 2019
edition of the spelling bee, and tied for 76th place in 2021.
He was among 11 contestants, aged 11 to 14, who advanced to the
finals of this year's event after beating out a field of 220
other competitors participating in the three-day contest, held
in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.
This year's total field comprised 94 girls, 134 boys and two
spellers who identify as nonbinary. One competitor did not
specify a gender.
The bee is televised live. The excitement is heightened by TV
commentators who describe the action as contestants wrack their
brains to come up with the correct spellings for often-obscure
words.
Last year, Harini Logan, 14, from San Antonio, Texas, correctly
spelled 22 words during a 90-second spell-off to claim the top
prize. It was the first time a spell-off decided the prestigious
competition, which began in 1925.
The 2022 show was broadcast on ION and Bounce, both networks
owned by a Scripps subsidiary, after 27 years on the cable
sports channel ESPN. ION will again carry this year's finals.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago and Steve Gorman in Los
Angeles; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Christopher Cushing)
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