The Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday came down to its second-ever spell-off, a fast-and-furious tiebreaking round that rewards speed as much as accuracy.
When the results were tallied, Bruhat — a 12-year-old from Tampa, Fla. — came out on top with a superhuman total of 29 correct words, seven more words than the previous spell-off winner in 2022.
If you weren’t able to watch the finals on Thursday night, here are three takeaways.
The difficulty of the finals was immediately apparent: The first speller onstage, Rishabh Saha, misspelled “desmotrope,” a chemistry term.
As an eighth-grader, Rishabh will not be eligible to compete in the 2025 Scripps Bee.
Persons:
Soma, Faizan Zaki, Bruhat, Rishabh Saha, “, Rishabh
Organizations:
Scripps, Spelling, Scripps Bee
Locations:
Tampa, Fla, —