Indian-American student Shrey Parikh, 14, from California, on Friday won the Scripps National Spelling Bee after correctly spelling 32 words in a 90-second spell-off.
Parikh clinched the title after defeating Ishan Gupta of New Jersey.
Parikh, who was also a finalist in the 2024 edition of the competition, takes home a slew of prizes, including "USD 50,000, a commemorative medal, the Scripps Cup, as well as USD 2,500 from Merriam-Webster, USD 1,000 in flight credits from Delta and USD 400 of reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The three-day competition began Monday at D.A.R. Constitution Hall here with 247 contestants from all 50 US states and territories including the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Defence Department schools in Europe, and five other countries: the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.
Nine contestants advanced to the finals held on Thursday evening.
In the decisive spell-off, Shrey and Ishan each had 90 seconds to correctly spell as many words as possible from the same list. Judges determined that Shrey spelt 32 words correctly, compared with Ishan's 25.
Twelve-year-old Sarv Dharavane from Georgia finished third.