Thirteen-year-old Indian-American Arvind Mahankali on Friday won the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest, as children from the community scripted history by dominating the prestigious competition for the sixth year in a row, grabbing top three slots this year.
Arvind, from New York, won the contest by correctly spelling the German word knaidel which means a small mass of leavened dough, overcoming his fear of German-derived words during his past four appearances at the contest.
“The German curse has turned into a German blessing,” he said after besting eight other finalists in a nail-biting two-and-a-half hour finale started with 281 contestants from eight nations.
This is the sixth consecutive year that an Indian-American has won the contest, which was watched live by millions of people in the United States.
