Melbourne: Anirudh Kathirvel, a nine-year-old Indian-origin boy is Australia's new spelling champion after he won the 50,000 dollars 'The Great Australian Spelling Bee' competition.
Kathirvel, born in Melbourne to a Tamilian couple won 50,000 dollars education scholarship along with an impressive 10,000 dollars worth goods for his school on Tuesday. Anirudh said he could not believe his luck after winning the scholarship and asked his fellow spellers to "pinch" him.
"I need to rub my eyes and see if this is a dream," he said adding, “Nope. Nope. Nope. Real. I can't describe it. It's like the best day of my life."
Anirudh said his favourite word to spell was 'euouae' as he liked the structure of the word as it was the longest word with consecutive vowels.
"My first spelling competition was when I was in grade 1. But my first year in the spelling competition was challenging. Gradually my confidence increased and I was pushing my spelling abilities to its limits. That's how my spelling journey has begun," he added.
