Harini Logan, a 14-year-old, eight grader from Texas, has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee championship. She won the championship in a tie-breaker beating India-origin Vikram Raju. Second runner-up was Indian-origin Vihan Sibal.
Harini received $52,500 for her win, while Vikram and Vihan received $25,00, and $15,000 respectively.
Harini beat 234 other contestants to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship.
This is the first time that the contest was won in a lightning-round tiebreaker. The format was amended after a record eight co-winners in 2019.
Balu Natarajan was the first Indian-origin winner of the Spelling Bee in 1985. From 2008 to 2018 all the 14 winners of Spelling Bee were of Indian origin. Out of the eight co-winners in 2019 seven were of Indian-origin.
Indian-origin Nihar Janga became the youngest winnner in the history of the championship when he won the contest at the age of 11 in 2016.
