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Indian-American girl is Spelling Bee champion

— PHOTO: AFP

MAKES IT THIS TIME: Speller Kavya Shivashankar (Centre) with her family after she won the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee competition on Thursday in Washington.

Washington: Indian-American teenager Kavya Shivshankar has won the prestigious Scripps Spelling Bee contest, keeping alive the traditional dominance of the community which has produced six of the past 10 champions.

The 13-year-old Kansas girl was declared the Spelling Bee champion after she correctly spelled “laodicean,” which means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics, at the end of the grilling finals which included 11 students from all across the country, seven of whom happened to be Indian-Americans.

An eighth grader student from Olathe in Kansas, Kavya beamed as she was hugged by her father Mirle, mother Sandy and little sister Vanya.

“I can’t believe it happened. It feels kind of unreal,” Ms. Kavya, who names Nupur Lala, the 1999 champion as her role model, said.

Ms. Kavya, who took home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes besides the huge champion’s trophy, looks forward to becoming a neurosurgeon. She participated in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 finals, tying for 10th, 8th and 4th places, respectively.

Tim Ruiter, 12, a seventh grade student from Centreville, Virginia, was declared the runner-up, while Aishwarya Pastapur (13), from Springfield in Illinois got the third spot.

Ms. Aishwarya was instrumental in leading her Mathcounts team to State-level competition by winning first place in county-level competition two years in a row.

This is the second time in a row that an Indian-American has been declared winner of the Spelling Bee championship. Eight Indian-Americans have now won the title, including six of the past 10 winners. — PTI

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