OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — When Achyut Ethiraj’s final appearance in the Scripps National Spelling Bee ended far earlier than he anticipated, the 14-year-old grimaced at the microphone, walked off the stage quietly and exited the ballroom with his mother’s arm draped around his back.
Achyut had plenty of company among the 140 spellers eliminated on Wednesday, spelling’s saddest day.
“I didn’t expect to get out, but I did, and I guess I have to accept the truth now,” said Achyut, an eighth-grader from Fort Wayne, Indiana. “I’m happy to do high school and do other things, but I’m kind of confused what to do now that I’m done with spelling.”
“It’s my last year, and I expected to do better, but I guess it is what it is,” he said. “And I have to move on.”
The structure of the spelling bee has undergone plenty of changes over time, but over the past three years under executive director Corrie Loeffler, the competition has gotten very hard, very fast for spellers who make it past the preliminary rounds.