Utah boy loses his spelling bee bid

WASHINGTON — Kunal Sah's hopes of winning the Scripps 2007 National Spelling Bee as a means to reunite with his deported parents ended early Wednesday when he failed to make it past the preliminary round.

The Green River eighth-grader's story has been in the New York Times, on National Public Radio, told in various Indian newspapers and blogs — and it even earned him his own brief Wikipedia entry — but he was quiet Wednesday after learning he would not move forward.

"He's a little depressed right now," said his uncle, D.C. Prasad, who accompanied him to Washington.

Sah's bee journey ended in the same place last year, although he studied hard for this year's competition as a way to sway immigration officials that his parents should be allowed back in the country. Contest rules cut off eligibility at eighth grade, so this was the last year he was able to compete.

After not hearing his speller number read off the list of those going onto the next round, Sah was visibly dazed and had trouble finding words to express how he felt.

"I don't want to talk right now," the 13-year-old said.

Prasad said later Wednesday that Sah was not going to talk further until today, as he was too emotional to discuss what happened.

Sah, speller number 260, spelled "hurdle" correctly during the on-stage portion of the preliminary round Wednesday, but the score of his written test was not high enough to push him to the next round.

Utah's other spellers, 12-year-old Helena Ma of Layton and 13-year-old Erika Gritton of Orem, also spelled their words correctly on stage, but neither advanced to the next round.

Gritton said it was a tough competition, but she was OK that she didn't advance farther.

"It's not really a big deal," Gritton said.

Gritton said she got only 11 right on the written test. Students needed at least 18 right to qualify.

She said that even though she did not advance, the whole experience has been fun so far.

"It's nice to have people around you that know what you are talking about," she said, referring to the other spellers. She enjoys watching the rest of the competition.

Ma, a sixth-grader at Burton Elementary School, correctly spelled "physician" during her turn at the microphone in the on-stage portion of the preliminaries. She said it was a pretty easy word, but she knew after looking at the answer key to the test that she might not move forward.