The 2008 National Spelling Bee was won by a 13-year old student Sameer Mishra from Indiana. There was a record number of 288 participants this year. Sameer Mishra beat Sidharth Chand of Michigan with the word “guerdon”, which means “something that one has earned or gained”. It was a close fight. This was Sameer’s fourth and Sidharth’s first Bee competitions. Sameer was coached by his sister who was also one of the contestants.
The profiles of other contestants are great and many had attempted the Bee before unsuccessfully. The youngest was an 8 year old boy Sriran Hathwar.
I love spelling competitions and have always followed them. The movie Akeelah and the Bee is one of my favourite movies. If you like spellings, English grammar/vocabulary and origin of words, you’ll really love that movie.
Read more about this on CNN and Yahoo! News.
Sameer Mishra is an American of Indian origin, so some of the Indian news websites lapped up the news.
Rediff.com misspelt the word American as Amrican in its title post!! Very good tribute to someone who won a Spelling Bee.
i love spelling. can i have an opportunity to join?