By — Colleen Shalby Colleen Shalby Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/photos-national-spelling-bee-ends-tie-second-year-row Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Photos: National Spelling Bee ends in a tie for second year in a row Nation May 29, 2015 2:46 PM EDT 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. DROP THE MIC. #spellingbee — John Project for Awesome Dot Com Green (@johngreen) May 29, 2015 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 We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now By — Colleen Shalby Colleen Shalby @CShalby
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. DROP THE MIC. #spellingbee — John Project for Awesome Dot Com Green (@johngreen) May 29, 2015 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 We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now