A 14-year-old eighth-grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in a spell-off, correctly spelling 32 words rapid-fire over 90 seconds to claim the competition's cash prize.
Shrey Parikh defeated Ishaan Gupta, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Jersey City, New Jersey, who got 25 words correct from the same list, after having been sequestered during Shrey's turn.
Both advanced to Thursday night's dramatic finale in the televised competition after they survived 18 rounds without misspelling a word on the final day. The eliminatory spell-off was introduced in 2021 after the 2019 competition ended with eight co-champions who kept spelling words correctly.
