National Spelling Bee runners-up rarely go on to win. But Faizan Zaki hopes to defy the odds

By BEN NUCKOLS Associated Press OXON HILL Md AP With the benefit of hindsight Vikram Raju knows there was almost no chance he would win after being a runner-up in the Scripps National Spelling Bee The chances of getting that high are infinitesimally small and the chances of doing it again are an order of magnitude smaller obviously Vikram reported Wednesday So it s a really daunting feeling as well because you perpetually try to outdo yourself from the previous year Don t tell Faizan Zaki those odds Faizan who lost to Bruhat Soma in a spell-off tiebreaker last year was the only speller to earn a perfect figure on the written spelling and vocabulary test that determined this year s quarterfinalists Then he breezed through seven rounds on Wednesday to become one of nine spellers who will compete in Thursday night s finals for a trophy and more than in cash and prizes And he s done it all with insouciant flair sauntering to the microphone in a black hoodie shaggy hair in his face Once he s sure of the word he takes his hands out of his sweatshirt pouch and matter-of-factly says each letter while he mimics typing in the air The -year-old seventh-grader from Allen Texas completely presented a bit of vulnerability on coterell the word that got him to the finals and he celebrated with a big fist pump after racing through its eight letters It was just very relieving I have a lot of expectations put on me so I m just excited that I m going to the finals again Faizan noted No matter how often he flexes his knowledge of roots and unfamiliar language patterns historical trends suggest Faizan is an underdog In bees over years only four runners-up have later gone on to win and just one did so in the last years Sean Conley the champion who finished second the year before Hopefully I can get it done Faizan mentioned Especially back home all of my friends they tell me that I need to win this year Other runners-up Disappointment has taken numerous forms for modern runners-up Related Articles Smokey Robinson sues former housekeepers for defamation over rape charges Skittles removes controversial additive targeted by RFK Jr Judge finds man charged with stalking Jennifer Aniston is mentally incompetent to stand trial Ex-assistant testifies Sean Diddy Combs sexually assaulted her and used violence to get his way Victoria s Secret website is down in the US as the lingerie seller addresses a safety circumstance Naysa Modi who finished second in was eliminated in by a written test that winnowed the field to spellers only to watch in dismay as the bee declared eight co-champions who aced words that she also knew Simone Kaplan the runner-up to those octo-champs didn t get a chance to come back because the bee was canceled due to COVID- Chaitra Thummala runner-up to Zaila Avant-garde in never contended again even though she had two more years before she aged out of the competition Spellers can t be older than or past the eighth grade Then came Vikram who didn t make it back in after a regional bee in Denver that lasted rounds over a span of more than five hours Vikram and his parents unsuccessfully appealed to Scripps that he misspelled because the bee s pronouncer made one of several mistakes Now Vikram returned to the bee to help his younger brother Ved who bowed out in the semifinals and he s long past any bitter feelings about how his spelling career ended Even if you know every single word in the dictionary there are just factors that are altogether out of your control Vikram reported The nerves might get too big someday Maybe the audience is distracting you in that one moment Maybe your tongue slips Maybe you get too excited I don t want to say that luck is the the majority fundamental factor but it s a huge factor in this competition he continued Youth and experience Jacques Bailly has been the bee s lead pronouncer for years or nearly three times as long as this year s youngest speller has been alive Yet meeting Bailly was the highlight of a precocious bee debut for Zachary Teoh an -year-old second-grader from Houston We got to read the dictionary together Zachary exclaimed Zachary was better than half the field in his bee debut Out of spellers his official placement was a tie for th place after he bowed out on a vocabulary word manifold during the quarterfinals He declared he felt like it was among the more intricate vocabulary questions and he knew how to spell the word even though he couldn t define it If Zachary somehow makes it back to the bee in each of his six remaining years of eligibility he would break the record of six appearances held by Akash Vukoti who debuted in at age and spelled his final word in Zachary wore a green tartan cardigan that he noted has been his lucky garment since kindergarten It s getting a bit snug If they give me a new one he commented referring to his proud parents I can wear both Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since Follow his work here