National Spelling Bee ends in its unlikeliest tie to date

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — If not for his high-pitched voice, there would be no way to peg Nihar Janga as the youngest-ever winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The 11-year-old breezed up to the microphone with confidence, and most of his words, he knew right away. He looked like the strongest speller onstage, stronger even than his eventual co-champion, 13-year-old Jairam Hathwar, a blue-chip speller whose older brother hoisted the trophy two years ago.

At his best, Nihar turned the tables on bee pronouncer Jacques Bailly by shouting out the definitions of his words as soon as they were announced.

"Biniou," Bailly said.

"Is this the Breton bagpipe?" Nihar said.

After the crowd quieted, Bailly asked Nihar if he wanted the word used in a sentence. Nihar just shook his head.

But Nihar wasn't perfect, and he stumbled at just the wrong time – or perhaps the right time. Twice, Jairam missed a word, giving Nihar a chance to seal the title. Both times, Nihar followed up with his own flub. After each nailed his final two words, Nihar, from Austin, Texas, and Jairam, from Painted Post, N.Y., were declared co-champions. It was the third year in a row that the bee ended in a tie.

Bee organizers insisted they'd be OK with another tie, but they changed the rules to make it less likely. Instead of a pre-determined list of 25 "championship words" for the final three spellers, the bee instead forced the top three to go through up to 25 rounds. And the difficulty of the words could be adjusted as necessary.