National Spelling Bee Champion Crowned

MEDIA RELEASE

12 October 2013
 
A stunned Nithya Narayanan of Lynfield College in Auckland has won the 2013 New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee title in Wellington today after several grueling hours of competing against 17 other contestants.

Nithya who didn’t immediately realise she was the winner when she correctly spelt ‘perestroika’, meaning ‘the policy or practice of restructuring the economic and political system in the former Soviet Union, felt it was as if she was in a dream.
 
“It hasn’t really sunk in,” says Nithya.  “I feel really privileged to have won today.”
The year 10 student was one of 18 finalists from around the country attending the ninth annual top spelling contest in the country, spelling up to 14 rounds of words before a packed house at the Circa Theatre.

The Year Nine and Ten wordsmiths showed off  their orthography skills, spelling words such as vicissitude, maladroit, denouement and endocrine.

When the other 16 contestants had been knocked out of the competition, Nithya locked horns with Uma Sreedhar of Wellington Girls College.

Uma took second place after stumbling on ‘trifecta’, which left Nithya to take out the New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee championship.

Roger Hall, Patron of the NZ Vegemite Spelling Bee, says: "It was the best contest yet! The spellers were very talented and it was fascinating to see the different personalities and how they tackle each word.

“If ever there was an exciting show, the spelling bee is a wonderful piece of theatre.”

Spelling Bee organiser, Janet Lucas, was impressed by the orthography skills of this year’s finalists.

“Nine years on I am really noticing how much better prepared our finalists are for the final,” says Janet. “The event seems to be going from strength to strength and it’s so exciting to think that we will be celebrating ten years of the national spelling bee next year which has always been my dream to get it this far.”

The 2013 Spelling Bee champion has won $5000 in cash along with the National Spelling Bee trophy .

The New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee, sponsored by Vegemite and ZM, is administered by a charitable trust.  Its purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage.

ENDS

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