Harini Logan spelled 21 words correctly in the first-ever spell-off at competition.
Harini Logan, a 14-year-old from San Antonia in Texas, has won the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee 2022. The Class 8 student won the competition in first-ever spell-off, a tiebreaker, introduced in the competition for the first time since its inception in 1925.
The Indian American correctly spelled 21 words in the 90-second spell-off, beating Vikram Raju, another Indian origin student, who studies in Class 7 in Denver.
Her final winning word was 'moorhen', a female of the medium-sized water birds from the grouse family.
Some other words that Ms Logan spelled correctly are 'sereh', a fragrant grass of southern Asia, 'charadriiform', relating to an order of birds and 'ditalini'- short elbow-shaped pieces of macaroni.
This was her fourth and final appearance for Ms Logan in the Bee, and she called the victory "surreal", according to The New York Times.
Ms Logan is an avid reader and loves creative writing, according to Spelling Bee website. She draws inspiration from Kamala Harris, the US Vice-President.
"She plays the piano and the recorder and is teaching herself the ukulele. In her free time, she loves playing with and walking Milo, her four-month-old Cavapoo puppy, doing a variety of quizzes with her brother on Alexa, reading, writing, listening to music and watching movies," the website further said.
The 14-year-old's favourite food is minestrone soup.
The Spelling Bee had its tense moments when both the competitors failed to correctly spell two words in a row between Rounds 13 and 18, reported USA Today. This prompted the judges to choose a spell-off - a 90-second round to spell as many words as possible correctly, according to NYT.
While Ms Logan spelled 21 words correctly, her opponent could only manage 15, leading to her win.
Indian Americans have always dominated the competition, however, last year the streak was broken after 14-year-old Zaila Avantgarde became the first-ever African-American contestant to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.