81st Scripps National Spelling Bee
The 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee took place on May 30, 2008.
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[edit] Competition
Two hundred eighty-eight champion spellers competed in the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., the most ever to date. Most of the spellers were from the United States, with a small showing from other locations such as Ghana, Jamaica, and South Korea. Twenty-two were Canadian.
[edit] Champion
The winner was Sameer Mishra, a 13-year-old eighth grader at West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School, in Indiana. He was sponsored by his hometown newspaper, the Journal & Courier. His winning word was guerdon. He won $35,000 in cash and more than $5,000 in prizes.[1]
In rounds 3 through 15, Mishra spelled "demitasse", "quadrat", "diener", "hyssop", "macédoine", "basenji", "numnah", "chorion", "nacarat", "sinicize", "hyphaeresis", "taleggio" and "esclandre" correctly, in that order.
In a comical moment during the spelling bee, he mistook the word "numnah" for "numb nut".
Mishra incorrectly spelled "sudation" in Round 2 as "sudatian."[2] However, because a speller's combined score from Rounds 1 and 2 determines whether he or she advances in the competition, a speller can incorrectly spell a word in Round 2 without being eliminated.
[edit] TV coverage
As with previous years, coverage was divided amongst American Broadcasting Company properties, the quarter-finals were broadcast on ESPN360, and the semi-finals were aired by ESPN, and the finals were broadcast by ABC. Unlike other ESPN-produced telecasts for ABC, ESPN branding was not used, even though the telecasts adopted the newer-styled ESPN graphics package.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Joseph White (2008-05-31). "Indiana boy spells 'guerdon' to win national bee". Archived from the original on 2008-06-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20080603005853/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080531/ap_on_re_us/spelling_bee. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
- ^ "Scripps National Spelling Bee: Sameer Mishra". 2008-05-31. http://public.spellingbee.com/public/results/round_results/speller/97. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
| Preceded by 80th Scripps National Spelling Bee |
81st Scripps National Spelling Bee May 29 – May 30, 2008 |
Succeeded by 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee |
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