Oxon Hill, Maryland (AP) – Vikramraj, benefiting from hindsight runner-up Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2022.
“The chances of getting that high are infinitely small, and the chances of doing that again are clearly slightly smaller,” Vikram said Wednesday. “So it’s a really difficult feeling, too, because you’ve always outperformed yourself since the previous year.”
Don’t tell Faizan Zaki to those odds.
Faizan, Who was defeated by bruhat soma He was the only speller to score a perfect score on the written spelling and vocabulary test that decided the quarterfinals of this year. He then plunged into the seventh round on Wednesday. One of nine spellers Those competing for trophies and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes in the finals on Thursday night.
And he did it all with innocent talent. He went into his black hoodie and shaggy hair down his face. When he is convinced of the words, he takes his hand out of his sweatshirt pouch and effectively says each letter while he imitates typing in the air.
The 13-year-old seventh grader from Allen, Texas showed a bit of vulnerability in the words that ultimately led him to the finals to “Coterell,” and he celebrated with a big fist pump after running eight letters.
“It was a very relief. I have a lot of expectations so I’m excited to go to the finals again,” Faizan said.
No matter how often he bends his knowledge of roots and unfamiliar linguistic patterns, historical trends suggest that Faizan is the weaker. With 96 bees over 100 years, only four runner-ups won to win later. Only one person has done so in the last 44 years.
“Hopefully we can get it done,” Faizan said. “Especially going back home, all my friends say I need to win this year.”
Other runner-ups
Disappointment has taken many forms for the recent runner-up.
Naysa Modi, who finished second in 2018, was eliminated by a written test that he nibed the field into 50 spellers in 2019. The bees declared eight co-champions A person who repeated words that she also knew.
Simone Kaplan, runner-up in 2019’s “Oct-Champs,” had no chance to come back. Bees for 2020 have been cancelled Due to Covid-19.
Chaitra Thummala, Runner-up to Zaila Avant-Garde In 2021, despite spending two more years before she got older from the competition, she never fought again. Spellers must not be over 15 years old or past 8th grade.
Then Vikram came. He didn’t return in 2023 after 53 rounds of bees from the Denver area lasted over five hours. Vikram and his parents fail to sue Scripps that he made a mistake as the bee prosecutor made one of several mistakes.
In 15 years, Vikram returned to Bee to support his younger brother Ved (who bowed in the semi-finals), and has long passed bitter feelings about how his spelling career ended.
“Even if you know every word in the dictionary, there are only factors that are completely out of your control,” Vikram said. “One day, your nerves may get too big. Maybe the audience is distracting you at the moment. Maybe your tongue will slip. Maybe you’re too excited.”
“I don’t want to say that luck is the most important factor, but that’s a big factor in this competition,” he continued.
Young people and experiences
Jack Bailly has been the bee lead pronouncer for 22 years, almost triple the youngest Speller of the year is alive.
But meeting Bailly was the highlight of the precocious bee debut of Zachary Teoh, an eight-year-old sophomore from Houston.
“We could read the dictionary together!” exclaimed Zachary.
Zachary was better than half of the field on his bee debut. Of the 243 spellers, his official placement was a tie in 74th place after succumbing to the vocabulary “manifold” during the quarterfinals. He said he felt it was one of the more difficult vocabulary questions and knew how to spell the word, even if he couldn’t define it.
If Zachary somehow returns to Bee with each of the remaining six years of qualifications, he made his debut at the age of six in 2016, breaking the record for six appearances held by Akash Vukoti, who wrote his final words in 2023.
Zachary wore a green tartan cardigan that he said was his lucky clothes from kindergarten. It’s a little tighter.
“If they gave me something new,” he said, referring to his proud parents, “I can wear both.”
___
Ben Nuccols has been covering Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.
Source link
