"I still can't believe that I won the contest. Last year, I had participated in the same event and couldn't even get through to the final round," said the 14-year-old.
Sukrut will now represent Navi Mumbai in the national finale to be held in Mumbai along with the representatives from 31 other cities. "I never make an effort to look at spellings when I read. I also read books on extra-curricular topics, however, the words are retained in my memory," he added.
Sukrut was competing with close to 450 students coming from 50 different schools and was accompanied by two of his schoolteachers. Nearly 15 students from DAV Public School, member of the Times of India NIE, had participated in the contest. Falling just a couple of points behind after the last tie-breaker round was Srivatsan Sridhar (14) of Hiranandani Foundation School in Thane.
"I participated for the first time and enjoyed it. I will participate again next year and try really hard to win," said Srivatsan. Ten students had made it to the final round of the contest on Saturday. Students had to go through three separate rounds and only ten finalists were selected for the last round of 'rapid fire'. Both Sukrut and Srivatsan were almost on a par till the third round and in the rapid-fire round, there was a tie. Two more tie-breakers later, Sukrut emerged winner. "For the grand finale, I will surely practise more by reading and will try to learn new words everyday," said Sukrut. The final contest will be held in Mumbai and the winner, along with a parent, will get a chance to witness the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC.
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