Two Indian-Americans children have won the world’s prestigious US spelling bee competition in a tie. Vanya Shivashankar, 13, and Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition. The winners will each receive over USD 37,000 in cash and prizes. Indian-Americans have won totally 14 of the past 18 contests and the eighth year in a row.

This is also the first time a sibling of a former champion won. The third spot was also bagged by an Indian- American Cole Shafer-Ray from Oklahoma. Appearing for the fifth and the final time for the contest, Vanya Shivashankar from Kansas confidently spelled words as cytopoiesis, bouquetiere and thamakau before she was asked to tackle the golden word.

Basketball enthusiast Venkatachalam spelled words like poblacion, caudillismo and nixtamal, and scherenschnitte correctly.

In the United States, Indian-Americans account for just under 1 per cent of the US population. They make up more than a fifth of the 285 spellers competitors in the 88th edition of the bee. If recent trends hold, they would account for more than a third of the contest’s 50 semifinalists.