29 May,2026 09:46 AM IST | Washington | PTI
E.W. Scripps Company president and CEO Adam Symson, right, holds the trophy over winner of the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Shrey Parikh. Photo Courtesy: PTI
Shrey Parikh, a 14-year-old Indian-American student from California, on Friday won the Scripps National Spelling Bee after he spelt 32 words correctly in 90 seconds.
Parikh won after beating Ishan Gupta of New Jersey.
Parikh, who was also a finalist in the 2024 edition of the competition, takes home a slew of prizes, including "USD 50,000, a commemorative medal, the Scripps Cup, as well as USD 2,500 from Merriam-Webster, USD 1,000 in flight credits from Delta and USD 400 of reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The three-day competition began Monday at D.A.R. Constitution Hall here with 247 contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Defence Department schools in Europe and five other countries: the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.
Nine contestants advanced to the finals that were held on Thursday evening.
Shrey and Ishaan each had 90 seconds to correctly spell as many words as they could, served from the same list.
Judges determined that Shrey spelt 32 words correctly during the spell-off, as against Ishaan's 25 words.
Twelve-year-old Sarv Dharavane from Georgia finished third.
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.
