St George’s girls the top-2 champs at 2018 Spelling Bee

St George’s Primary School proved its academic dominance yesterday (June 18) when two of its students emerged as the winners of the 2018 Spelling Bee Competition.

In a nailbiting final, 12-year-old Shelby Harpe and her 11-year-old schoolmate Naomi Onwufuju outspelled their competitors to win first and second places, respectively.

Both youngsters clocked a perfect score throughout the four rounds of the finals and were the only two of the seven finalists who did not misspell a single word.

The winner of the competition, therefore, had to be decided in an unexpected tiebreaker round.

Shelby was eventually named spelling bee champion after Naomi misspelt EULOGY.

But, there were no ‘hard feelings’ between the girls who were equally happy St George’s Primary took home the top-two positions in the three-week competition.

“I feel very excited and very happy and overwhelmed,” said the 2018 spelling champion, Shelby.

“I felt that I did great overall and that St Georges did a great job altogether,” her schoolmate, Naomi added.

Heated spell-off for third

There was also a four-way tie for third place, which led to another tiebreaker — this time between Kayla Bryggs of BVI Seventh Day Adventist Primary, Ashaanna Tillack of Althea Scatliffe Primary, Anjanique Cheltenham of Joyce Samuel Primary, and Rhiann Ramlall of Bregado Flax Educational Centre.

The heated tiebreaker lasted relatively long as the quartet went head-to-head.

Minutes passed without any misspellings as adjudicators hurled words at the students vying for third.

Ashaanna was the first to get knocked out of the runnings after she misspelt DIPHTHERIA. Anjanique then followed after fumbling on the word DIAPHRAGM.

Things boiled down to Kayla and Rhiann. But, in the end, Kayla was able to bring third place spot home to the BVI Seventh Day Adventist Primary.

The seventh finalist in the competition was Zyra Creque of Robinson O’Neal Memorial Primary.