The moment was a culmination for Dev, who began competing in spelling bees in third grade and has studied 10 hours each day for the past year, according to his mother.
When his parents rushed the stage to hug him, he felt overwhelmed, Dev said in an interview after the competition.
A fan of Roger Federer and the movie “La La Land,” Dev had competed in previous national spelling bees, tying for 76th place in 2021 and 51st place in 2019.
In 2021, organizers introduced a vocabulary round, in which spellers have to identify the correct meaning of the word.
Harini Logan, an eighth grader from San Antonio, won by correctly spelling 21 words.
Persons:
Dev, ”, Roger Federer, ” Dev, Harini Logan
Locations:
La, Largo, St . Petersburg, San Antonio