With 'Impervious' Sriram Hathwar Secures Spelling Bee Spot

Sriram Hathwar is the youngest competitor in this years annual Scripps Spelling Bee. Sriram is also the youngest contestant ever to make it to the finals. Sriram is a second grade student at Chemung Valley Montessori School in Big Flats. By spelling the word "impervious" correctly, Sriram secured his spot in the 79^th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee to be held in Washington D.C. in May.

"Impervious" was the 26 word Sriram Hathwar spelled correctly to win his spot in the Finals. Standing in the Stephen B. Morley Auditorium the dreams of the second grader finally came true. Sriram was supported by his mom and other members of his family.

Winning was a struggle as Sriram faced off against the sixth grade regional champion of last year's Spelling Bee Devin Li. The sixth grade runner-up attends Corning's Alternative School for Math and Science according to the article "Spelling bee ends in thrilling fashion" published by The Online Leader by Derrick Elk.
The Spelling Bee was sponsored by The Leader and Kraft Foods and started out with twenty-five competitors. When the seventh round rolled around there were only four competitors left. The twenty-five round was where Hathwar finally clenched the win.

The 2008 Scripps Spelling Bee is biggest as well as longest-running educational endorsement. The Spelling Bee is non-profit and sponsored by The E. W. Scripps Company as well as 280 US sponsors, American Samoa, The Bahamas, Canada, Europe, Ghana, Guam, Jamaica, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the U.S. Virgin Islands according to the National Spelling Bee website at spelling bee.com.

Each competitor will be assigned a number. With the exception of the Round One preliminaries, the entire bee is oral and consists of rounds. Round by round will occur and contestants that spell their words wrong will be eliminated. Contestants may ask to have the words repeated as well as for a definition or have the word used in a sentence in order to clarify the exact word. A winner will be determined when there are two final contestants and one misspells a word and the other spells that word correctly as well as the final word after the misspelled word. A winner will then be announced.

The Scripps Spelling Bee is a televised event. Broadcast times are as follows:

Broadcast Times as posted on http://spellingbee.com/broadcast.asp

The Quarterfinals air live on ESPN360.com from 2:00 to 5:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 29.

The Semifinals air live on ESPN from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 30.

The Championship Finals air live on ABC from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 30.