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Twelve-year-old Shifa Amankwah-Gabbey made Ashanti Regional proud last Saturday after she emerged winner of the 2018 National Spelling Bee competition.

The first-time contestant said she was only trying her luck but as she kept progressing in the competition, it boosted her confidence of winning.

“It was an awesome experience when I was called among the last seven spellers,” the Nagie’s Angels Educational Centre student recounted.
 
The competition which started with close to 200 spellers across the 10 regions of the country went through various stages ending with three finalists.

Some words like chanteuse, androgynous, biloculine, calpatio, Gloucester, pyroclastic and allium were the make or break for some of the contestants.

There was Raj Thakwani and Akshaya Janikiraman, both from DPS International located at Tema, who gave Shifa a stiff competition.

Master Thakwani who competed last year misplaced an ‘i’ for an ‘e’ when spelling ‘Elutriation’ handing Miss Shifa the opportunity to spell her word right to win the competition.

“When I was asked to spell the last word, I weighed my options after I was told it was not a Japanese word although it sounded so. I asked for the origin and trusted my instincts to get it right.

“I was so nervous I did not know when I spelt the championship W-A-M-A-R-A. When the crowd jumped I busted into tears because I had won.”

According to her, the whole journey to winning the competition has been absorbing for her thanking the other children for pushing her to the limits.