Indian Origin Boy Tops the Great Australian Spelling Bee

Anirudh Kathirvel becomes the first Indian winner at the Australian Spelling Bee.

Anirudh Kathirvel, 9-year-old spelling bee champion. (Photo: Facebook/The Great Australian Spelling Bee)

Anirudh Kathirvel, a nine-year-old Indian-origin boy is Australia’s new spelling champion. He has won a scholarship worth of 50,000 dollars for winning The Great Australian Spelling Bee.

Kathirvel, born in Melbourne to a Tamilian couple, said he could not believe his luck after winning the scholarship and asked his fellow spellers to “pinch” him.

I need to rub my eyes and see if this is a dream, and added saying that Nope.Nope.Nope.Real. I can’t describe it. It’s like the best day of my life.
— Anirudh Kathirvel

Anirudh said his favourite word to spell was ‘euouae’, as he liked the structure of the word being the longest word with consecutive vowels.

Some of the other words I like to spell are feuilleton, cephalalgia, ombrophobous.
— Anirudh Kathirvel