05/28/26 09:23:00
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05/28 21:21 CDT Shrey Parikh wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee, beating
Ishaan Gupta in lightning round
Shrey Parikh wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee, beating Ishaan Gupta in
lightning round
By BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) --- Shrey Parikh felt the pressure of arriving at the Scripps
National Spelling Bee as a favorite, but his confidence showed every time he
got a word he knew. And when the bee came down to a lightning-round tiebreaker
against Ishaan Gupta, Shrey left no doubt.
Shrey turned a tense, high-quality final into a blowout Thursday night, racing
through the 90-second "spell-off" and getting 32 words right to be crowned the
best young speller in the English language. Ishaan spelled 25 words correctly
in the tiebreaker.
A 14-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, California, Shrey finished third in 2024
but lost his school bee last year when he was battling a fever. He has
dominated the bee circuit since, winning several highly competitive online
competitions against many of the same kids he outlasted this week in the
nation's capital.
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