OXON HILL, Md., June 2 (Reuters) - Competitors in the final rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee picked their way along a precarious lifeline of consonants and vowels on Thursday as they eyed a $40,000 cash prize.
On the second and last day of the Bee, 15 competitors were still standing for the final face-off at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in suburban Washington, to be televised live on ESPN beginning at 8:30 p.m. (0030 GMT Friday).
In earlier rounds, some spellers tripped over words including Corriedale, toreutics, cleidoic and panettone, weeding down the field headed for the finish of the 90th national Bee.
Others hung on by correctly spelling catafalque, outarde and chryselephantine.
"What?!" exclaimed Maggie Sheridan, 13, from Mansfield, Ohio, throwing her hands up in disbelief when she learned she correctly spelled whirlicote, a type of luxurious carriage, with one second to spare.
It was not long, however, before she was foiled by the word saccharomycete, a yeast fungus, and fell out of the competition.
Marlene Schaff, 14, was ousted by misspelling cleidoic, which means to be enclosed in a relatively impervious shell, like an egg.
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Sheridan Hennessy, 11, of Cincinnati, Ohio, contemplates a word during the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts[/caption]
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Shaheer Imam, 13, of Catonsville, Maryland, contemplates a word during the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts[/caption]
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May 31, 2017; National Harbor, MD, USA; Daniel Doudna from AK spelled the word onychomycosis (fungal disease of the nails) correctly during the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY NETWORK[/caption]
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June 1, 2017; National Harbor, MD, USA; 8th grader Owen Kovalik (OH) waits for his second turn in the morning session during the final round of the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY NETWORK[/caption]
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June 1, 2017; National Harbor, MD, USA; Mira Dedhia (IL) spelled the word Sinon (one who deceives and betrays by false tales) correctly during the final round of the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY NETWORK[/caption]
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Kodai Speich, 13, of Rockford, Illinois. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts[/caption]
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June 1, 2017; National Harbor, MD, USA; Competitors gather before the start the final round of the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Sean Dougherty-USA TODAY NETWORK[/caption]
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Shaheer Imam, 13, of Catonsville, Maryland, contemplates a word during the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts[/caption]
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Eric Gitson, 11, of Delaware, Ohio, competes. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts[/caption]
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Contestants sitting.
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts[/caption]
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Torah Smith, 12 of Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts[/caption]
“I’m disappointed because I was debating between two spellings,” said Schaff of Lake Forest, Illinois.
Her mother, Michele Schaff, who homeschools her two children, said she knew her daughter had a talent for spelling when, at age 1, she labeled the family cat with wooden letters.
“She was communicating with sign language before she had the vocal-chord abilities to speak,” Michele Schaff said.
Competitors age 6 to 15 emerged from early spelling bees involving more than 11 million youths from all 50 U.S. states, U.S. territories from Puerto Rico to Guam, and several countries, from Jamaica to Japan.
The youngest-ever competitor, Edith Fuller of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who turned 6 on April 22, was eliminated from the competition late on Wednesday.
New rules this year are aimed at preventing tie endings like last year's, when two joint winners both got $40,000 cash prizes.
Bee officials planned to administer a Tiebreaker Test to all spellers in the competition at 6 p.m. (2200 GMT) on Thursday. It will consist of 12 spelling words, which contestants will handwrite, and 12 multiple-choice vocabulary questions.
If it is mathematically impossible for one champion to emerge through 25 rounds, officials will declare the speller with the highest tiebreaker score the winner. If there is a tie on the test, judges will declare co-champions.
