Ricardo Richard's Abdel Bazzar Heads to D.C. For Experience of a Lifetime After Winning Territorial Spelling Bee

  • Staff Consortium
  • March 17, 2023
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2023 Territorial Spelling Bee Winner, Abdel Bazzar of the Ricardo Richards Elementary School. By. RICARDO RICHARDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

Ricardo Richards Elementary School student, Abdel Bazzar, has won the 50th Territorial Spelling Bee and will travel to Washington, D.C. to compete in the Scripps National Bee — the annual spelling bee held in the United States — starting May 30.

"Congratulations Abdel!" the elementary school exclaimed in a post on its Facebook page. The school also shared an image of the champion holding his trophy following the competition, which took place in St. Thomas on Thursday at the Charlotte Amalie High School.

Abdel, age 10, went against 11 students in 26 rounds of stiff competition, and he won by correctly spelling the following words: lithophone, nomophobia", "peacenik", and realm. 

Coming in second was Nyeema Henderson of the Calvary Christian Academy and winner of the St. Thomas-St. John District Spelling Bee. In third place was Claude O. Markoe Elementary School 6th grader Sinaia Steve.

Bee Week 2023 will take place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center from May 28 to June 2. The national competition will begin with the Preliminaries on Tuesday, May 30, and conclude with the Finals on Thursday, June 1.

Harini Logan of San Antonio, Texas, represented The Brauntex Performing Arts Theatre Association in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee. After 18 rounds of competition, she clinched the championship title by correctly spelling 22 words in the Bee's first-ever Spell-off finish, according to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Following her impressive win, Harini began a whirlwind media tour that took her from coast to coast. First, she received a private tour of the White House with her fellow 2022 Finalists.

The first stop on Harini's victory tour was New York City where she appeared on Live with Kelly and Ryan, trying her hand at a word game against the hosts.

She also had the opportunity to ring the closing bell at Nasdaq where she saw her winning moment projected in Times Square. Harini sat down for an interview as part of Nasdaq's Meet Me @ Marketsite series.

Then, Harini jetted across the country to the west coast to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! She faced off against Jimmy Kimmel with pronouncers Guillermo and special guest Mike Tyson, the Scripps National Spelling Bee made known.

The National Spelling Bee began in 1925 when nine newspapers joined together to host a spelling bee.

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