Two Ghanaian kids to raise the flag high at the Scripps Spelling Bee

kwame

February 20, 2017 2:53 PM

Ghanaian kid Adom Appiah who placed first at the 2017 Upstate Regional Spelling Bee will join Lily Ama Tugbah at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Adom Appiah, a Ghanaian student in the United States of America, will join Lily Ama Tugbah to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC in May.

Appiah, a seventh-grade student at Spartanburg Day School earned his ticket to Washington DC after correctly spelling ‘abrasive’ to win the 2017 Upstate Regional Spelling Bee.

The road to victory was a dicey one for the 13-year-old who had to battle her cousin Caroline Yirenkyi for a chance to make it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The 2017 Upstate Regional Spelling Bee had quite a number of spellers in the early round which was reduced to only six spellers after five rounds.

Adom and Caroline were left alone in the competition to battle it out by round 10 and dueled for several rounds before Adom Appiah won with the word ‘abrasive’.

“I’m so excited and just surprised,” Adom said following his victory.

Speaking of his strategy of asking for the origin of most of the words prior to his spelling, the 13-year-old seventh-grader said:

“Studying through the spelling words, they were all categorized by etymology. So it helped me narrow it down to which word it would be.”

Organizer of the regional spelling bee, Kim Land said of the competition:

“Hard work and dedication earned these spellers the chance to come here and compete today.”

Adom Appiah joins another Ghanaian and a student of Solidarity International School in Ashaiman, Lily Ama Tugbah who won the Ghana Spelling Bee competition.

Lily who will fly to the United States in May said following her win:

“It's a really great honor. I plan on doing everything possible to make Ghana proud”

kwame