National Spelling Bee Ends In Tie For Third Straight Time

After a heartstopping epic duel of word masters, an 11-year-old Texan and 13-year-old New Yorker tied for the championship trophy on Thursday night in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the third time in a row the contest deadlocked between two victors. Crowd favorite Nihar Saireddy Janga, a fifth-grader who charmed the fans with his slight voice and knowledge of obscure words, and Jairam Hathwar, whose brother Sriram Hathwar co-won the contest in 2014, were declared this year’s winners. The two Indian-American boys squared off against only each other for 22 rounds, and nearly didn’t tie: Nihar had the opportunity to win after his older competitor stumbled on two of his turns.