National Spelling Bee 2009: Round 4

So far the spellers in this round are doing very well. Oceanside's Zachary Zagorski fabricated another win with toile while Kavya Shavishankar and Sidharth "Mr. Busy Bee" Chand pulled themselves together to spell ergasia and sobornost, respectively. And Kennyi "Mr. Joviality" Aouad continued to charm even as he refused to be bloodied by thyrocervical.

But Michael Sun of Paramus mispelled coaming—which means he's going. And youngest speller Sriram Hathwar didn't dig himself out of the hole that fodient put him in. He should have more chances in the years to coam.

UPDATE There were only five eliminations in Round 4, leaving 36 for Round 5. Let's see if the Canadians can make it to Round 6 this year!

National Spelling Bee 2009: Semifinalists

Only 41 spellers survived the first three rounds to duke it out on Thursday.

Neither of the Big Apple spellers made it, but Zachary Zagorski of Oceanside is in, as is Michael Sun of Paramus.

Their formidable opponents include Kavya Shivashankar and Sidharth Chand as well as Kennyi "The Giggler" Aouad, Keiko Bridwell, Neetu Chandak, third-grader Sriram Hathwar, Josephine Kao, Kyle Mou, Mouctika Paluri, Aishwarya Pastapur, Avvinash Radakrishnan, and Vaibhav Vavilala.

Here's Kennyi from 2007.



Source (4:07)