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Nihar Saireddy Janga, 11, and Jairam Jagadeesh Hathwar, 13, tied as winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, USA, held on Friday. The two reached the finals after beating out 282 contestants.

The winning words were "feldenkrais" – a system of aided body movements – for Hathwar and "gesellschaft" – a rationally developed mechanistic type of social relationship – for Janga.

Janga, said on his win, “I’m just speechless. I can’t say anything, I’m only in fifth grade.” A resident of Austin, Texas, he was participating in the Bee for the first time and became its youngest winner.

This is the third consecutive year the annual American spelling competition has ended with two winners. ESPN, the official broadcaster, reported that Scripps made the bee tougher after two consecutive ties, “forcing the last two spellers to get through three times as many words as in years past”.

“Jairam, of Painted Post, New York, misspelled two words. But both times, Nihar, of Austin, Texas, followed up with a miss, and the bee continued.”

Asked on a TV news show about what they plan to do with their $ 40,000 cash prize, they said they’ll save it for college.

Both want to study medicine at Harvard. Janga wants to be a neurosurgeon and Hathwar, a physician.

Hathwar, a golf enthusiast and fan of jazz music, tied for 22nd place in last year's Bee. His brother Sriram Hathwar was a co-winner in 2014. Below is his profile, where he says he would just blow up if he won.

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A first time participant, Janga got an an enthusiastic send off from his school.

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There was another cute young man who stole some attention for being the youngest ever Spelling Bee competitor. Six-year-old Akash Vukoti got to play reporter for the Bee’s official Youtube channel.

Below us a video where Vukoti breaks down how to be a good speller. His lesson on how to pronounce French words is hilarious.

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