Can you spell ‘cymotrichous’?

I certainly can't but 14-year-old Sukanya Roy, a Grade 8 student from Scranton, Pennsylvania, did and topped the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee aired live on ESPN last week. She prevailed over a field of 275 contestants, ages 8 to 15, from the US and its territories and eight other countries. The eighth-grader won a $30,000 cash prize, an engraved trophy, a $2,500 US savings bond, a complete reference library, a $5,000 scholarship and $2,600 in reference works and other prizes. By the way, "cymotrichous" means having wavy hair.

Neither can I spell "caciocavallo" (an Italian cheese similar to provolone), "zwischenspiel" (any composition. having the character of an interlude or intermezzo), "rapakivi" (a form of granite) and "sarangousty" (waterproof stucco) but Laura Newcombe, 12, Dakota Jones, 14, Arvind Mahankali, 11, Joanna Ye, 14 along with Sukanya breezed through these and many other obscure words in the final round. One of the words was the Filipino card game "panguingue" which was spelled correctly by Laura. Of course, Pinoys spell it as "pangginggi." These kids obviously spent a lot of time with Merriam-Webster.

Like a marathon

I usually tune in to ESPN to watch basketball games and other sports so I was surprised that the network covered a spelling contest. Then as the coverage continued, I likened it to a marathon that started out with 275 runners and was finally down to five who were neck and neck as they raced to the finish line. It was as exciting as watching the NBA Finals and I was glued to my TV for three hours to see who would win.

Last year, it took only nine rounds to declare a champion. This year, Sukanya won after 20 grueling rounds. The field was down to five spellers after 10 rounds and in the next four rounds, they managed to go through 20 difficult words without committing a mistake. For a while, I thought the organizers would run of words for the five finalists.
Dakota was eliminated in round 15 when she didn't get "sanja" (a popular Maharashtrian breakfast). Next to go were Arvind and Joanna in round 17 when they missed out on "jugendstil" (a style of architecture similar to art nouveau), and "galoubet" (a show- jumping horse), respectively.

Contrasting personalities

Only Laura and Sukanya were left. Laura, who hails from Toronto, was aiming to be the first Canadian to win the Bee. The two had contrasting personalities. Laura was the bubbly one. She was always flashing a smile and even kidded around with the judges while Sukanya was more serious. Each one was able to spell the first two words correctly, "a show jumping horse" (a wild, hurried, or excited state or situation) and "orgeat" (a sweet flavoring of orange and almond used in cocktails).

Then Laura stumbled on "sorites" (a form of argument having several premises and one conclusion) by adding a "p" before the first "s" and I noticed that the smile had disappeared from her face. She looked uneasy because if Sukanya got the next two words right, her opponent would be declared the 2011 champion.

The first word was "periscii" (those who live within a polar circle). Sukanya spellled it correctly. Next was "cymotrichous." After asking the standard questions (definition, language of origin, etc.), she was her usual serious self as she confidently muttered one letter after another. When she reached the last letter and she didn't hear the chime that signaled a wrong answer, she knew she had won and for the first time in the three-hour long competition, she flashed a wide smile.

For Sukanya, the third time's the charm. She tied for 12th place in 2009 and finished 20th last year. This is the fourth consecutive year that an Indian-American has won the Bee. Thank you, ESPN, for giving airtime to this worthwhile competition. See you next year!