SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — Forty-four of the best student spellers in the Bay Area, ages 8 to 14, came to the KPIX 5 studios in San Francisco on Saturday compete in the CBS Bay Area Spelling Bee regional finals.
In the end, the winning speller was Amith Vasantha, a seventh-grader from BASIS Independent Silicon Valley in San Jose. He successfully spelled “clogwyn,” defined as a precipice or cliff by Webster’s dictionary.
Amith Vasantha from Basis Independent Silicon Valley school in San Jose won the 2018 CBS Bay Area Spelling Bee. (CBS)
The final rounds were especially tense, pitting Vasantha against Rishik Gandhasri, also from a San Jose school, Silver Oak Elementary, in a memorable back-and-forth showdown.
As the winner’s medal was being presented, the proceedings were interrupted by a brief challenge which was resolved by the judges in Vasantha’s favor.
Round-by-round videos of the event are embedded below.
ROUND 1
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ROUND 2
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ROUND 3
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ROUND 4
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ROUND 5
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FINAL ROUNDS
It is interesting how you never hear about Hispanics winning these contests.
I guess they truly mean it when they say “No habla English”.