Besides Mishra and Chand, the Indian American children who made up the final dozen were Kavya Shivashankar, 12, of Olathe, Kansas. This was the third appearance of the seventh-grader from the California Trail Junior High School.
Jahnnavi Iyer, 14, of Enola, Pennsylvania, an eighth-grader at the Eagle View Middle School, made her debut this year.
Shivashankar, who was a favourite to win, was eliminated in the 11th round when she misspelled 'ecrase' as 'escrasee'.
Iyer was eliminated in the earlier round, when she misspelled 'parfleche' as 'parfles.'
Three years ago, Indian American children, in their best year ever, claimed the top four places at the event. Anurag Kashyap. Aliya Deri, Samir Patel and Rajiv Tarigopula finished in the top four places in the 2005 Bee.
The performance of Indian American children was equally impressive in earlier years.
In 1999, Nupur Lala took the title, with George Thampy winning it the next year. In 2002, Pratyush Buddhiga won the trophy and it was the turn of Sai Gunturi to do so in 2003. In 2004, Pratyush's brother was a runner-up.
India Abroad, the largest-circulating newspaper in the United States, published in five editions across the country and owned by rediff.com, was so taken by the performance of the Indian American children in 2005 that if flew in Anurag, Sameer, and Rajeev and their parents to New York to present a Publisher's Special Award during the 2005 India Abroad Person of the Year event.
Image: Sidharth Chand of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, reacts after he misspelled a word during the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Also read: 8 yr old Indian is youngest in Spelling Bee
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