New Zealand Speller Advances To Semi–Final

New Zealand Speller Advances To Semi–Final

Tom Winter, New Zealand champion speller will compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee semi-finals tomorrow morning in Washington DC after correctly spelling his two words on stage today.(US time 5.30pm Thursday or New Zealand time 9.30am Friday 4 June).

Tom was one of 273 spellers competing in the annual spelling competition that started with a 50 word online test and was followed by the preliminaries to determine a pool of just 48 spellers (less than 20 percent) who will continue through to the second day of the competition tomorrow (US time 10am – 1pm Friday or New Zealand time 2am – 5am Saturday .

Tom says he is thrilled to have achieved his goal of reaching the semi-finals.

“Janet Lucas, Event Organiser, New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee, says this is a huge achievement and both Tom and his mother, Penny Olds, a teacher at Burnside High School in Christchurch where Tom is also a student, are thrilled.

“Everyone at the Spelling Bee is celebrating Tom’s achievement. They say more than 11 million students participate in the competition in the so Paige Kimble, Director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, says that for Tom to be one of the top 48spellers is an extraordinary achievement. We are all aware that he has the additional obstacles of understanding both our accents and our American-English spelling,” she says.The two words that Tom spelled on stage were liquefacient (to turn into a liquid) and xylophilous (a love of wood, living off wood). Visibly relieved after he spelled his second word, Tom then had an agonising wait before the results were called and he knew for sure he had made it.

“ I am so pleased to have made it this far. I know that Mum and Dad helped me with some last minute cramming. Dad called the night before the written test and said I had to know the word, pusillanimous and Mum tested me on agape and incredibly those two words were in the written test and I really think they were what got me over the line. Dad will be thrilled to think he played a part!”

After the announcement George Thampy, a speller in the documentary, Spellbound, and the Scripps winner in 2000, came up specially to congratulate Tom.

He told Tom that his spelling would not improve over night so his advice was to have a good night’s sleep and work hard on staying calm in the next part of the competition.

Tonight Tom will attend a special dinner briefing with Scripps Officials and the other semi-finalists.

Tom is the sixth New Zealand speller to represent New Zealand at the Scripps National Spelling Bee and the second to make it through to the semi-finals. The other was Kate Weir, Linwood College, Christchurch, in 2007.

Penny says she really wants to thank the Paparoa Street School teachers especially Mrs Fletcher.

“We are thrilled to have got the chance to come to the competition and this is next stage is the cherry on the icing on the cake.”

Tomorrow’s semi-final will screen live on ESPN at 10am – 1pm US time or 2am – 5am NZ time on SKY channel 3.

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