‘Conceited’ wins speller a ticket to Washington DC

Equipped with the International Dictionary, a 5kg monster containing 470,000 words. Belinda will now prepare intensively for the US final in June.

Pueblo, diorama and liverwurst – after many rounds of intensive spelling, Belinda Gibbon from Wellington Girls’ College reigned victorious at the NZ Vegemite Spelling bee in Wellington on 26th February, 2011.

14 finalists from around the country showed off their prowess and the tough fight was won when Belinda correctly spelled ‘conceited’, looking thrilled and relieved when the final was over.

Second place went to Cathryn Obnial from Carmel College in Auckland after correctly spelling ‘precipice’, and third place getter was Joshua Whitney from James Hargest College, Invercargill, when he tripped over ‘reticence’.

Belinda will now spend the next three months studying for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC in June, where a win could earn her more than $40,000 and other prizes.

Belinda, who came from South Africa six and a half years ago, says, “I was very, very nervous on stage and now it hasn’t quite sunk in that I’ve won.”

Thrilled about the prospect of representing NZ at the US Final, Belinda’s preparation for the event will include studying the Scripps National Spelling Bee word list, and reading Webster’s International Dictionary. She will also try to master the differences in American and English spelling.

The winner of the 2011 final is NZ’s seventh representative at the US Spelling Bee, the world’s longest running academic competition and held more times than the Academy Awards. In America, the event attracts more than nine million competitors hopeful of winning a place in the championship final.