It was the third straight year of double winners at the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Nihar Janga, 11, of Austin, Texas, and Jairam Hathwar, 13, of Corning, New York, were declared co-champions at the National Spelling Bee on Thursday.
“It was just insane, I don’t even know how to put it in words,” Jairam said.
“I’m just speechless. I can’t say anything. I’m only in fifth grade,” Nihar said.
Nihar correctly spelled the word “gesellschaft” and Jairam correctly spelled the word “Feldenkrais.”
It’s all in the family for Jairam. His brother Sriram won the 2014 spelling championship.
Meanwhile, over on Twitter, at least one person wasn’t impressed with a feature of the competition. Someone tweeted to Scripps Spelling Bee saying: “Unsure of why the national spelling bee has a “comfort couch” you [expletive] lost suck it up quit teaching kids it’s okay to loose.”
The tweet was later deleted, but screen grabs show that whoever was running the Scripps account couldn’t resist correcting their spelling. Their one-word response: *lose.
Back to the winners, what does the future hold for the two master spellers?
Nihar says he wants to be a neurosurgeon curing brain disorders, according to his spelling bee profile. Jairam also wants to be a doctor, hoping to attend Harvard University.
