In National Harbor, Maryland, Dev Shah won the $50,000 prize and the trophy in 2023 US Spelling Bee
Dev Shah, an Indian-origin 14-year-old teen from Florida won the National Spelling Bee competition 2023 in the US by correctly spelling the word “psammophile“. Dev Shah is a class 8 student from Largo.
There were 231 national contestants, and out of the 11 finalists that were left standing in three days of gruelling competition, 10 were of Indian origin.
He carried home the trophy and the $50,000 prize at the finals held on Thursday night in National Harbor, Maryland after he spelled the word for an animal or plant that thrives in sandy soil.
After nine were eliminated, Shah went into the final round against 14-year-old Charlotte Walsh from Arlington, Virginia, beating her with bathypitotmeter (a device for measuring water temperature and current) before clinching the award by spelling the final word correctly. Schistorrhachis, aegagrus, and were among the words he spelled correctly through 15 rounds reaching the top.
Shradha Rachamreddy and Surya Kapu tied for third place with a $15,000 prize.
Thousands of students from around the US and some foreign countries compete in local and regional competitions before the field is narrowed to 231.
Since Balu Natarajan won it in 1985, 21 Indian-origin children have followed him, monopolizing it from 2008 to 2018. Harini Logan was the winner last year resuming the Indian lead, after a 2021 win by a non-Indian.
Children of Indian origin have dominated the contest, which tests not only the rote memorization of spellings but also the knowledge of the origin of words and their structure and usage.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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