Bruhat Soma emerged as the champion of the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee following an intense tiebreaker between the top two spellers in the competition.
The 12-year-old clinched the title on Thursday evening by correctly spelling 29 words in 90 seconds during a spell-off.
He outperformed Faizan Zaki, who managed to spell 20 words in the same time frame.
This marked the second occasion where the winner of the Bee was decided by a spell-off, with Harini Logan achieving the same feat in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Bruhat, a seventh-grade student at Turner/Bartels K-8 School in St. Petersburg, Florida, had previously participated in the Bee in 2022, finishing tied for 163rd place. He returned in 2023 and secured a tied 74th place.
Aside from his spelling prowess, the seventh-grader also enjoys playing basketball and badminton.
Meanwhile, Faizan, also 12 years old, is a sixth-grade student at Rice Middle School in Dallas. He had previously competed in the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee, finishing tied for 370th. He made a comeback in 2023 and secured a tied 21st place.
With a total of 245 competitors, this year’s Bee featured the largest number of spellers since 2019, aged between 8 and 15 years old. The event, held in National Harbor, Maryland, included representatives from all 50 states in addition to the District of Columbia. There were also 12 spellers from countries such as the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
While all participants left with invaluable experiences, the champion took home a cash prize of $50,000, a commemorative medal, the prestigious Scripps Cup, and various other awards.
Scripps News, a division of the E.W. Scripps Company, organizes the Bee on a not-for-profit basis.
