Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe won the 87th Spelling Bee on 29th May 2014 Thursday making history as the first Indian Americans to win the contest jointly, a first for the championship since 1962.
Hathwar, a five time veteran of the championship came as
a favorite, but Sujoe, first timer surprised everyone with a dazzling
performance, forcing a draw.
“The contest was against
the dictionary and not against each other” said Hathwar, 14, of the last few
rounds of the contest, when he had only Sujoe, 13, to compete against.
A tie such as this is
rare, and happens only when the Spelling Bee pronouncer runs out of words preselected
for the contest and it came to that Thursday night.
The co-champions in 1962,
the first time ever, were, said Spelling Bee organizers, Nettie Crawford from
El Paso, Texas and Michael Day of St. Louis, Missouri.