Welcome back a historic ending to the 2022 scripts.
National spelling bee. It all came down to the first
ever spell off. The final two competitors had 90
seconds to spell as many words correctly as they could.
ornithorhynchus O R N I T H O R H Y M C H U S Nandubay
N A N D U B A Y 14 year old Hiarini Logan from
spelled 22 words correctly and is now the spelling bee
champion and he joins us now. Congratulations on your
big win last night. How are you feeling? Were you able
to sleep? Thank you. It was really the entire
experience was so surreal and this is my fourth be, so
it's, this has been a dream for a while and I first
started off by watching the 2015 being second grade
watching the night finals. So ever since then just to
like win the club and win the B was just like one of my
biggest dreams. Yeah. And this year the competition
came down to the first ever spell off. How do you, how
did you feel when you had to take on this new and
unique challenge? Especially af doing the B so many
times. Okay, yeah, definitely. So the spell off was
introduced last year, so it's fairly new to the B and
last year the spell off didn't happen and this year was
just sort of looming, but we were uncertain whether it
would happen or not. So I think like when it finally
they brought out like the podium and everything and
they were starting to spell off, I was a bit nervous,
but I just decided to take a deep breath and just plow
through them. Oh wow. So I, we may have to send you a
clip of Lindsey and I trying to spell words yesterday
because you'll probably laugh at us because we laughed
at ourselves. Um it was really, really awful, but what
would you say was the hardest word that you had to
spell? Was there one that almost stumped you that you
were kind of nervous about? Not too sure about? Yeah,
there were a few words near the final rounds, like
right before the spell off where um, my competitor
become Raju and I, we were spelling but we were both
missing. So the be kept continuing. So probably th
words I missed were the most difficult I saw
personally. Yes. So we have something we wanted to
share with you, we heard that you love to read uh and
that you want to write uh and one of your favorite
authors I believe is Roshani Chokshi I happen to be
very good friends with her and she actually has a
message for you. Hi Harney Roshani here and teddy and
we just wanted to say a huge congratulations on your
win. What an incredible achievement. Honestly, and the
rest of the bunch of the potatoes, You are absolutel
demigod in the making, we can't wait to see all the
incredible things we're going to do next.
Congratulations. So we know she's a big inspiration to
you. How did you feel seeing that? Yeah, well honestl
that feels surreal. I think I remember like last year I
attended a webinar and wow this thank you have a loss
of words, which is pretty ironic there. But what words
of wisdom do you have for people looking to compete i
next year's competition? Do you have any tips and
tricks for how you studied and prepared for this? I
think really one tip idea to aspiring spellers is to
work consistently give your best and be proud of
yourself for it and don't let your nerves overcome you
onstage especially right. Yeah, those are good tips. So
we got to know what's, what's next for you. Any, any
challenges that we can expect to see from you
accomplishing what's next? We'll definitely, besides
spelling, I had like a variety of hobbies, like I play
the piano, I am definitely looking to go more into
musical theater. I've been doing it since kindergarten
and of course writing and swimming, playing tennis an
just spending more time exploring my other hobbies and
I also want to be able to give back to the community
whether it's just the spelling community or my hometo
of San Antonio and I want to also be an advocate, not
only for the B but also for literacy as a whole and
help provide opportunities for Children who I would
like to do the B and have the potential to but are n
able to listen to you speak. I mean what was I doing in
8th grade 14 years old? I don't know. It was not what
you're doing. Um really quick though. What is your
favorite word to spell? My favorite word to spell?
Would probably be tall, Tuesday tune today, and I just
like it because well, I guess it's long. It looks
interesting. Okay, wait, so you have to spell it for
us. Alright. I'll do that. Uh T A L. T. U. S. H. T. U.
N. I. T. U. D. All right. We'll assume that's
We have no way of confirming that, but we we I will
follow you anywhere. Okay. Alright. Harini Logan
scripts. 2022 national spelling bee champ. Thank you so
much for joining us and congratulations. Thank you.