LI spelling champ knocked out of national bee
Safiullah Sajid competes at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Tuesday. Credit: AP/Alex Brandon
“Psephomancy" was the word that got Safiullah Sajid.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee competition ended Wednesday for Safiullah, a Locust Valley Middle School seventh-grader, when he misspelled it.
Before the 13-year-old left the stage, a judge reminded him to not forget how far he'd come.
“Safi, congratulations on making it to the quarterfinals,” head judge Mary Brooks told him. “You were very impressive yesterday in those three rounds. And again, who knows, we may see you next year.”
Psephomancy, which Merriam-Webster defines as “divination by pebbles," was the first-round word for Safiullah at Wednesday's quarterfinals.
Safiullah, of Oyster Bay, told Newsday he’s disappointed but wanted to try again next year.
“I feel fine because I tried my hardest and the rest is up to luck,” he said while on his way back to his room. “I want to try to come back next year. I'm going to keep studying."
Safiullah was one of 234 spellers from across the country and around the world who gathered this week in National Harbor, Maryland, to compete for the national championship.
In preliminary rounds Tuesday, he correctly answered three rounds of questions to advance to the quarterfinals.
In about two minutes, Safiullah correctly spelled “corsair,” a pirate of any kind or period, and “bennet,” a European herb with long, yellow flowers and leaves that features narrow lobes arranged on opposite sides of the main vein so as to resemble a feather.
He also correctly answered a multiple-choice question on the meaning of “promontory,” land protruding into a body of water beyond the coastline.
Nearly two-thirds of the spellers who competed Tuesday were eliminated. A little more than half, 48 of the 88 spellers who competed in Wednesday's quarterfinals, advanced to the semifinals Wednesday afternoon.
The finals are set for Thursday, and the champion goes home with a $50,000 cash prize.
Last year, Plainview middle-schooler Bhavana Madini won third place at the National Spelling Bee, taking home $15,000 in prize money.
Of the hundreds of spellers this year, 45 previously competed in the national competition; 23 have relatives who are former national competitors, and four were finalists in 2021, including three who tied for fourth place, according to the E.W. Scripps Co., which administers the National Spelling Bee.
Along with the United States, the contestants, ranging from ages 7 to 15, come from the Bahamas, Canada, Germany and Ghana. There are also spellers from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
