Indian-American girl wins 90th Spelling Bee with 'marocain'

Ananya Vinay, a 12-year-old Indian-American girl, on Friday won the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee, taking home a USD 40,000 cash prize after correctly spelling "marocain" to become the 13th consecutive winner from the community.

A sixth-grader from Fresno, California, Ananya won the spelling competition after competing for 12 hours and spelled 35 words correctly. Her rival was Rohan Rajeev, another 14-year-old Indian- American student from Oklahoma, misspelled the word 'marram' which is a coarse grass found on sandy beaches. Ananya's victory underscores the overwhelming dominance of Indian-Americans in the annual intense competition.

"Congratulations to our 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion, Ananya Vinay. What a fantastic performance!," the National Spelling Bee's official account tweeted.

"She played to win and win she did. Ananya Vinay takes home the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion title and trophy," it said.

More than 11 million youngsters aged between six and 15 from all 50 US states, US territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam and countries such as Japan and Jamaica had entered the nerve-racking competition. Ananya and Rajeev were the last two standing of the initial 291 spellers. Ananya captured the 90th championship title by correctly spelling "marocain", which is a dress fabric made from silk or rayon.