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'Cymotrichous' helps 8th-grader win bee

Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 13 years, 7 months AGO
| June 3, 2011 9:00 PM

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) - It went on and on and on. Five spellers who seemingly had memorized the entire dictionary simply could not be stumped with any word tossed their way. It was getting late, way past bedtime and well beyond the time slot allotted by ESPN for its telecast.

Finally, after 21 consecutive spellings without a miss, one of them finally flubbed a word. Eventually, the others were gone - having heard the telltale bell of elimination - except for 14-year-old eighth-grader Sukanya Roy of South Abington Township, Pa., who took home the trophy and the more than $40,000 in cash and prizes Thursday at the 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee.

"I went through the dictionary once or twice," said Sukanya, who tied for 12th in 2009 and 20th in 2010, "and I guess some of the words really stuck."

Sukanya's winning word was "cymotrichous," which relates to wavy hair. She likes hiking, rock climbing and ice skating, wants to travel and perhaps pursue a career in international relations. She is the fourth consecutive Indian-American to win the bee and the ninth in the last 13 years, a run that began when Nupur Lala captured the crown in 1999 and was later featured in the documentary "Spellbound."

"They look up to that. But I don't know how that impacted her," said Sukanya's farther, Abhijit Roy. "This is not something we pressurized her to do. She wanted to do this by herself, and we basically just helped her along. It's a few years; this didn't happened overnight."

Laura Newcombe of Toronto was the runner-up. The 12-year-old was trying to become the first Canadian to win the bee, but she went out on the word "sorites," her look of concentration turning suddenly to a sad one when she realized she'd misspelled it. Canadians have been a strong presence at the competition for many years and have had several close calls, with Nate Gartke of Alberta also finishing second in 2007.

"I was proud, happy and felt this was a privilege" to represent Canada, she said.

Thirteen spellers made the finals, an ever-growing chic-to-be-geek event that was broadcast in prime time for the sixth consecutive year. It was held at the National Harbor complex along the Potomac River, south of Washington.

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