WASHINGTON — Sameer Mishra fulfilled his own prophecy when he captured the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee title by spelling a word meaning reward.
While watching his older sister, Shruti, compete in the spelling contest more than three years ago, he promised his mother that he would win the national championship.
“I told my mother I was going to do the Bee, and if I was going to do it, I was going to win someday,” he said after successfully spelling “guerdon” in the 16th round of a contest that began with 288 competitors. Mishra will receive $35,000 in cash plus more than $5,000 in other prizes.
The eighth-grader from West Lafayette, Ind., stood onstage next to a towering gold cup and shared credit for his win with his 17-year-old sister, who wiped tears from her eyes as he introduced her as his coach and best friend.
Sameer, 13, was competing for the fourth year at the national spelling contest. However, it was his family’s seventh stab at the coveted championship. His sister competed three times.
Shruti Mishra said she was “immensely proud.”
Sameer’s father, Krishna Mishra, a microbiology instructor at Ivy Tech Community College in Lafayette, Ind., said he was just proud his son made it into the finals this year.
Sameer Mishra gained a reputation at the Bee for more than just spelling, providing comic relief in the semifinals and championship rounds.
In a semifinal round, he correctly spelled “macedoine,” a French word for a type of salad, after commenting, “That seems good right now.”
In the ninth round Friday evening, the pronouncer, Dr. Jacques Bailly, read “numnah,” a sheepskin pad placed between a saddle and an animal’s back. But Bailly’s pronunciation sounded odd, prompting tittering from the crowd and a puzzled question from Sameer.
“Numbnut?” Sameer asked.
Bailly then more clearly stated the Hindi word.
“Oh, numnah!” Sameer said before correctly spelling it. “That’s a relief.”
Sameer wasn’t the only speller who drew laughs.
The competitors Friday, who ranged from 10 to 15 years old, typically asked Bailly for alternate pronunciations, definitions and etymologies. But Jahnavi Iyer of Enola, Pa., added an extra question to the mix in the fifth round.
“Could I have an easier word, please?” asked the 14-year-old eighth-grader at Eagle View Middle School.
Bailly laughed, declining the request.
Jahnavi managed to correctly spell “solidungulate,” which means having single, undivided hoof on each foot. She so surprised herself that she ran the wrong way back to her seat.
Forty-five spellers began the semifinals Friday morning, but after three more rounds only 12 remained for the evening’s championship finals. Competitors were tripped up by stumpers such as “cryptococcosis” (a fungal infection), “phrenicectomy” (excision of a portion of the phrenic nerve) and “cyathiform” (shaped like a cup).
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