9-year-old Anirudh Kathirvel proved too good for 8-year-old Grace, being crowned the first ever winner of The Great Australian Spelling Bee 2015 contest. Anirudh was born in Melbourne to a Tamilian couple. He spelled his way through a lexicon of words last night to win the title, after clearing 10 rounds. The two word whizzes correctly spelled a range of tricky words including ricochet, aardvark, camaraderie and psychoanalyst. He won $10,000 cash and $50,000 towards his education, a Macquarie Dictionary and the inaugural trophy.
Anirudh wins after Grace stumbles on ‘Ratatouille’:
Anirudh Kathirvel came out on top after Grace stumbled on the word ‘Ratatouille’. 10 year old Mica from NSW finished in third place, followed by Harrison, 12, from Victoria, Harpita, 8, from Victoria and 11 year old Marko from New South Wales.
Indian-origin boy sweeps Australian spelling bee contest:
Anirudh said he could not believe his luck after winning the scholarship and asked his fellow spellers to “pinch” him. He said, “I need to rub my eyes and see if this is a dream. Nope. Nope. Nope. Real. Pinch me someone. I can’t describe it. It’s like the best day of my life.”
Anirudh said his favourite word to spell was ‘euouae’ as he liked the structure of the word as it was the longest word with consecutive vowels. “Some of the other words I like to spell are feuilleton, cephalalgia, ombrophobous,” he said adding that he loves watching Indian movies.