Sudbury Spelling Bee winners to represent city at provincial championships
$1,800 in prize money was awarded, but only three kids move on to compete in Toronto
Toothbrush? Check. Socks and underwear? Check. Dictionary? Check.
A convoy of very talented young spellers will be off to Toronto the weekend of May 15 to represent Sudbury in the annual Spelling Bee of Canada competition.
Dozens of kids spelled their hearts out on Sunday at the 2016 Greater Sudbury Spelling Bee held at Tom Davies Square.
There, in council chambers, children ages 6 to 14 expertly rattled off words to judges, family and friends, like "plight", "microbe" and "palmerosa".
Nehan Punjani, 9, won in the junior category for kids 9 to 11. His championship word was "justify".
As for what he won, "The trophy," he beamed. "And 300 bucks!"
Punjani said his favourite word to spell is "deoxyribonucleic acid" — the long form of DNA. He also has big plans after the bee in Toronto: he wants to be an inventor who invents machines that "make people's lives easier."
Primary champ Ameer Ahmed said he "practised a lot" for his third year in the bee. But you can't practise the championship words — those only come out when all of the words from the bee list have been exhausted.
That means spellers still standing have to be able to spell other words that they may never have heard or see before.
Ahmed won in a championship round by spelling "together". He said his least favourite word to spell is "incapable" — though he is perfectly capable of spelling it correctly.
Another capable young speller is the 2016 intermediate division champ Brendon Matusch, 12, who is now a five-time bee champion.
"The words were harder this year," he said of moving up to a new age division.
"I read a fair bit," he explained of his continued spelling success. "The trick is know what the root words of a word are ... but other than that, there's no real way to study for the championship words."
"Knowing how to spell is very important."