Indian-American teen is spelling bee champ

Houston, June 3

Harini Logan, a 14-year-old Indian-American eighth-grader from Texas, barely took a breath as she correctly spelled 22 words during a marathon, first-of-its-kind 90-second spell-off to win the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee, beating Vikram Raju in the prestigious contest where children of Indian origin have ruled the roost.

Logan, who took home the USD 50,000 cash prize and Scripps Cup trophy on top of awards from Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica, was declared champion on Thursday night after she was reinstated by the judges in the final round.

She spelled 22 out of 26 words correctly, while Raju, a 12-year-old boy from Denver, got 15 out of 19 words right during the first-of-its-kind spell-off, a format that tested the contestants on how many words they could correctly spell within 90 seconds. Vihaan Sibal, a 13-year-old from Texas, finished third, while Saharsh Vuppala, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Washington, was fourth.