25 Indian-Americans among 49 spelling bee semi-finalists

For several years now, Indian-Americans have won most of the prestigious spelling awards in the United States.

In this combo photo, (left to right) Ankita Vanilla of Manassas, Virginia, Dev Jaiswal, of Jackson, Mississippi and Naysa Modi of Monroe, Louisiana react as they participate in the 88th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee at National Harbour, Maryland on Wednesday.

As many as 25 Indian-Americans have made it to the list of 49 semi-finalists of the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, in yet another indication of their continued dominance in the prestigious annual contest.

These Indian-Americans would vie for top positions in the final of 88th Scripps National Spelling Bee scheduled for Friday (India time).

For several years now, Indian-Americans have put up formidable challenges to their competitors and won most of the prestigious spelling awards in the United States.

Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, from St Louis, Missouri, who finished third in 2014, is considered favourite this year.

>Sriram Hathwar, 12, and Ansun Sujoe were the joint winners in 2014.

Making her fifth appearance to the Spelling Bee, 13-year-old Vanya Shivashankar from Kansas is another frontrunner.

Ms. Shivashankar previously competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2010, 2012 (tied for 10th place), 2013 (tied for 5th place) and 2014 (tied for 13th place).

Her elder sister, Kavya, won the 2009 championship.

The National Spelling Bee started in 1925 with nine contestants.

Within the U.S., all 50 States are represented this year, along with competitors from the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defence Schools in Europe.

This year the winner will get a cash prize of about $35,000.