Indian-American boy Bruhat Soma wins National Spelling Bee with winning word ‘abseil’

Bruhat Soma, a 12-year-old Indian-American from Tampa, Florida, won the prestigiousScripps National Spelling Bee title in a dramatic tiebreaker againstFaizan Zaki on Friday (May 31).

Soma, whoseparents are from the south Indian state of Telangana,spelt 29 words correctly in the tiebreaker, beatingZaki by nine, to win the title on Thursday night.

Scripps said Soma’s winning word was “abseil."

He will receivea trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.

Soma, a seventh-grader, had earlier won three consecutive spelling bees.

The tiebreaker

Thursday's competition began witheight finalists.There were frequent lengthy commercial breaks that allowed the finalists to mill about at the side of the stage, chatting with their coaches, relatives and supporters.

During the tiebreaker round,Bruhat went first, and after he got through 30 words, it appeared it would be impossible to beat him.The report said that Zaki'space was more uneven at the outset. He attempted 25 words but flubbed four of them.

'Really happy I won this'

Reacting to his victory, Bruhat said that his main goal was always to win.“It didn’t matter if I won all those other bees. This is what I was aiming for. So I’m just really happy that I won this,” he added.

Previously, the Tampa residentwon the Words of Wisdom bee hosted by Scott Remer. He also wonthe SpellPundit bee organised by that study guide company. And he won the first-ever online bee emceed by Dev, last year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.

Soma's last loss

The Associated Press report said that Soma's last loss was in September 2023at the WishWin senior spelling bee where he misspelt“Gloucester.”

Following this, Soma said that he just went on a winning streak.

(With inputs from agencies)