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NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND — Round 3 of the Scripps National Spelling Bee proved difficult for Times Leader speller Peter Khoudary, 11, of Dallas, who misspelled the word niacin on Wednesday afternoon.
He wasn’t the only speller to succumb.
Word-by-word coverage of the results on the bee’s website showed Peter was one of eight contestants in a row to misspell such words as quadragenarious, septarium, conduit, sequela, polychromatic, Angelus, and flagon. Finally, the next child spelled tabernacle correctly.
“He was upset because he was able to spell most of the other words, but never heard of niacin,” Peter’s mom, Malak Khoudary, said after Round 3.
In all, 79 contestants misspelled in Round 3 and more than 30 misspelled in Round 2. Peter correctly spelled hyrax in that round. Round 1 had been a written preliminary test.
Competition in the national bee continues Thursday and can be viewed live on ESPN2 beginning at 10 a.m. and continuing on ESPN at 8 p.m.