BELAIR--The Scotiabank Bright Future Rotary-Rotaract Spelling Bee 2015 finals were held at Belair Community Center on Sunday, November 1, in the presence of Rotary District Governor Felix Stubbs and his wife Carla.
The finalists were Saheli Kirpalani and Akarsh Bhatia from St. Joseph’s Primary School, Bhavesh Lakhwani and Diya Agnani from St. Dominic’s Primary School and Frankajha Fleming from The Valley Primary School of Anguilla.
All five finalists came well prepared for the final round. Each had twenty words to spell orally in front of the judges and the audience.
At the end of this round, Saheli Kirpalani, Bhatia and Lakhwani had all tied for first place with perfect scores, as they also had perfect scores in the semi-finals.
The judges picked out 15 words from the pot they thought would be the hardest and the three went into an elimination round whereby they had five words each to spell, but for the first time ever in five years of Spelling Bees there was still no outright winner.
The decision was taken to find nine words (three words each) on the Internet to see if the tie could be broken. Finally, Bhatia emerged as winner, with Kirpalani and Lakhwani tied for second place. Diya Agnani finished at rank four. St. Joseph School won the trophy for the best support group.
District Governor Stubbs spoke to the children at the end of the prize giving ceremony encouraging them in their future endeavours, education and attaining their goals and aspirations.
Nail-biting finals in Rotary Spelling Bee
