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Sukanya Roy wins spelling bee crown
By siliconindia
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Friday, 03 June 2011, 20:09 IST |
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Fremont: It was a joyous moment for the Indian American Sukanya Roy when she was crowned as a winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest. Sukhanya Roy knew victory was hers when in the final round she was asked to spell cymotrichous. This gave honor for the community for the fourth year in a row. Roy, 14, an eighth-grader at Abington Heights Middle.
"My heart started pounding. I couldn't believe it. It's just amazing. It's hard to put into words" she said.This was the third year that she was participating in this competition. And taking tips from her past experience of being calm and relaxed is what gave her way to victory. She tied for 12th place in 2009 and 20th place in 2010.
Every summer Roy visits India to meet her family and hopes to pursue a carrier in international relations. She is the ninth Indian-American in the last 13 years, a run that began when Nupur Lala captured the crown in 1999 and was later featured in the documentary "Spellbound."
The winner will be awarded a $30,000 cash prize, a trophy, a $2,500 US savings bond, a complete reference library, a $5,000 scholarship and $2,600 in reference works and other prizes.
Anamika Veeramani had scored a hat trick for Indian-Americans in taking the crown last year. Roy was one of the six Indian Americans - Sriram Hathwar, Arvind Mahankali, Prakash Mishra, Mashad Arora, and Dhivya Senthil Murugan, who made it to the last 13 in the finals.
The youngest finalist was 10 year old Dhivya Murugan of Denver, who was born in India. The spelling bee kids just keep getting better and better. Even words like chlorthalidone, dreikanter, renminbi and helichrysum couldn't sufficiently narrow down the field in the semifinals, which needed 95 minutes of overtime earlier on Thursday to whittle the competitors from 41 to 13.
The week began with 275 spellers. A written test on Tuesday and two oral rounds on Wednesday reduced the field for the semifinals. According to the Scripps Spelling Bee's website, this year brought contenders ranging in age from 8 to 15 years old from all over the world.