Photos: National Spelling Bee ends in a tie for second year in a row

Vanya Shivashankar at left and Gokul Venkatachalam at right lift the trophy after becoming co-champions the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Photo by Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Until last year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee hadn’t seen a tie for more than five decades. Last night’s 88th championship marked the second year in a row that ended in a tie.

The competition began with 283 young spellers and left two standing in the final moments.

Cole Shafer-Ray of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, forgoes the “writing” out a word on his name card, for “typing” in the air. Photo by Joshua Roberts/Reuters

After 13-year-old Vanya Shivashanker of Olathe, Kansas, correctly spelled “scherenschnitte”, 14-year-old Gokul Venkatachalam of Chesterfield, Missouri, was informed that if he correctly spelled the next word, a tie would be declared. There were no more words left on the competition’s list for an additional face-off round.

Dev Jaiswal of Jackson, Mississippi, reacts after correctly spelling his word during round seven. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

With that, Venkatachalam correctly spelled the word “nunatak”, which means a rocky ridge.

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Dictionaries everywhere breathed a sigh of relief.

Ankita Vadiala of Manassas, Virginia, reacts to the word “ballabile”, which she correctly spelled. Photo by Joshua Roberts/Reuters

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