New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Harini Logan won the Scripps National Spelling Bee 2022 and claimed the victory in the first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker. Harini, a 14-year-old Indian origin teenager, is from San Antonio, Texas. She correctly spelt 22 words in the historic spell-off and won 50,000 USD.
The official Twitter account of Scripps National Spelling Bee tweeted, "Our 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion #Speller231 Harini Logan draws inspiration from VP @KamalaHarris. After tonight, Harini is inspiring a new generation of spellers everywhere. She says it takes a village to build up a speller. Hers is happy tonight. #spellingbee".
Our 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion #Speller231 Harini Logan draws inspiration from VP @KamalaHarris. After tonight, Harini is inspiring a new generation of spellers everywhere. She says it takes a village to build up a speller. Hers is happy tonight. 🐝 #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/m3RNiM2qvl
— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) June 3, 2022
Harini's final winning word was 'Moorhen', which means the female of red grouse. Vikram Raju, a 12-year old Indian origin boy, took second place and spelt 15 words correctly. The words in the final round included scyllarian, pyrrolidone, Otukian and Senijextee. Both Harini and Vikram were given 90-seconds to spell as many words as they can and received the same amount of words. Harini spelt most words and won.
Taking about Vikram Raju, Scripps National Spelling Bee tweeted, "Spelling 15 words correctly, #Speller76 Vikram Raju takes 2nd place. He has one more chance at the Scripps Cup. We know he'll take a page out of his favourite athlete's @nuggets' #NikolaJokic book and do what Nikola does: stay tenacious, motivated, and work hard. #spellingbee".
Spelling 15 words correctly, #Speller76 Vikram Raju takes 2nd place. He has one more chance at the Scripps Cup. We know he'll take a page out of his favorite athlete's @nuggets' #NikolaJokic book and do what Nikola does: stay tenacious, motivated, and work hard. #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/wxHafJ7Vkw
— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) June 3, 2022
This is Harini Logan's fourth time at the competition. "I think honestly so surreal, it's my fourth time at the Bee. This is such a dream, this is my fourth bee and I'm just so overwhelmed," she was quoted as saying by CNN. She further added, "At first I was a little uneasy and I decided to take it in stride ... I just had to take a deep breath and tell myself to go out there and do my best and whatever happens, happens."