Akash Vukoti, Speller 459, was in 2016 the youngest speller at the Bee. Now, he's a Texas third grader who celebrated his birthday Tuesday during the competition.
His word was "Tibetan," and he asked if it referred to the Southern Part of China. He was close: it means of, relating to or characteristic of a region of southwestern China on a high plateau north of the Himalayas and bordering on India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.
The sentence: The average altitude of the Tibetan plateau is 16,000 feet.
"Wow, that's a lot," Akash said before spelling it correctly.
He returned to his back-row seat only after high-fiving every other speller on his side.
