New Zealander misses out in Spelling Bee

Media Release
Wednesday June 1st
Maryland, USA
New Zealander misses out in Spelling Bee

Belinda Gibbon, from Wellington Girls’ College, was eliminated from the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland today.

Despite correctly spelling her two words on stage, it was not enough to make it through to the semi-finals, as her preliminary written test fell short of the pass mark.


On stage she correctly spelled ‘terraqueous’ meaning consisting of, or formed of, land and water, and ‘upsilon’ meaning the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet.

Belinda was not alone in her disappointment, from a pool of 275 spellers, only 41 made it through to the semi finals.

Although sad to have not made the semi finals, Belinda says she is thrilled to have had the opportunity to compete in what is known as the Olympics of Spelling.

“It has been a fantastic experience and I have a new appreciation of the English language. I want to study Latin when I get back to school.”

Janet Lucas, Event Manager of the New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee, says Belinda is having the trip of a lifetime.

“Winning the New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee final, travelling to America, meeting other spellers and seeing the highlights of Washington DC is an amazing prize package.

The aim of the New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee is to put fun into spelling and increase word knowledge. As well as learning to spell some bizarre and difficult words, competitors learn lots of useful words that they will have for the rest of their lives. I hope that Belinda’s experience will excite other students to give it a go.”

The 13 year-old is New Zealand's seventh speller to represent the country at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. New Zealand is one of 13 countries outside of the United States to send spellers to the competition.

Participating countries are the United States, Guam, American Samoa, Japan, The Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Scripps Spelling Bee runs over three days and the Final is at 8.30pm to 10pm (12.30 pm to 2pm NZ time) on Thursday 2nd June and will air live in the United States on ESPN.

2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee
Round One Test - written
Tuesday May 31st 2011
Correct Spellings
1. fourteen
2. drowsy
3. wasteland
4. secrecy
5. generate
6. normalize
7. youthquake
8. unswerving
9. remembrance
10. electromagnetic
11. appointee
12. oracular
13. theatricality
14. benediction
15. quietive
16. jiggety
17. infobahn
18. calenture
19. bonobo
20. pinealectomy
21. Kafkaesque
22. monodomous
23. vitelline
24. acetarious
25. hukilau

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