By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 2, 2019 – The Bahamas has entered three participants in the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee May 28-May 30 at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center at National Harbour in Oxon Hill, Maryland, near Washington, D.C.
In addition to Bahamas National Spelling Bee (BNSB) Champion Roy Seligman, a 10-year-old fourth-grade student at Lyford Cay International School, The Bahamas will also be represented by 11-year-old Kevin Williams, a fifth-grade student at Yellow Elder Primary, and Arjun Shetty, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Queen’s College, who finished second and third, respectively, in the BNS championship finals held on Sunday, March 10, at Atlantis on Paradise Island.
Williams and Shetty have qualified as contestants in the Scripps Bee through the RSVBee process, a new invitational program introduced last year by Scripps to allow jurisdictions to enter more than one champion speller.
Although The Bahamas did not take advantage of the opportunity last year when it was introduced, many jurisdictions did, and as a result the number of participants in the 2018 Scripps Spelling Bee increased substantially from the 291 spellers who participated in 2017 to 515 contestants in last year’s Scripps Bee. Out of the 515 spellers, 241 became contestants via RSVBee, including the overall winner Karthik Nemmani, 14, of McKinney, Texas.
Earlier this week, Ms. Valerie Miller, spokesperson for Scripps National Spelling Bee (SNSB), noted that this is the second year for RSVBee, and by the deadline, SNSB had “confirmed 294 RSVBee spellers to compete in the national finals.” In addition to the 271 spellers who “followed the traditional sponsored path”, a total of 565 spellers – up from 515 in 2018 — will compete in the 2019 Scripps national finals.
Ms. Miller confirmed on Thursday (May 2) that three Bahamian spellers are entered in this ear’s competition: Roy Seligman is speller #554, Kevin Williams is speller #87, and Arjun Shetty is speller #540.
This year marks the 26th anniversary of ESPN as the broadcast partner for the national finals. ESPN will provide coverage on ESPN3 during the Preliminaries (except for Group One in Round Two). The Thursday morning Finals will be on ESPN2. Fans can watch the primetime Finals at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.
Scripps National Spelling Bee also announced that the “2019 Champion will receive a newly designed trophy created exclusively for the Scripps National Spelling Bee by Rookwood Pottery,” which will be unveiled during Bee Week.
The first-place winner will “receive $50,000 and trophy from SNSB; $2,500 cash prize and complete reference library from Merriam-Webster; reference works and three-year online membership from Encyclopædia Britannica; a trip to New York City for the Champion to appear on Live with Kelly and Ryan; a trip to Hollywood for the Champion to appear on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
