The most prestigious US spelling bee has ended in an unprecedented eight-way tie after the co-champions worked through five consecutive perfect rounds.
In the most extraordinary ending of The Scripps National Spelling Bee’s 94-year history, the contestants spelled the final 47 words correctly before the decision was taken to call it a tie.
Bee pronouncer Jacques Bailly announced the decision to allow the crown to be shared, describing the winners as “most phenomenal collection of super spellers in the history of this competition."
The 2019 champions, who dubbed themselves “octo-champs”, will all receive the full winner’s prize of $50,000 (£39,700), meaning they are to share a total of $400,000.
"Champion spellers, we are now in uncharted territory," the bee pronouncer told the co-champions during the contest.
"We do have plenty of words remaining on our list. But we will soon run out of words that will possibly challenge you, the most phenomenal collection of super spellers in the history of this competition."
The bee held three more rounds after this, and none of the contestants missed a word or even appeared to struggle.
The winners were: Rishik Gandhasri, Erin Howard, Saketh Sundar, Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali, Christopher Serrao and Rohan Raja.
