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"Fifteen letters. Two words. One shot. That&amp;#039;s all that stood in the way of Arvind V. Mahankali and the $30,000 grand prize at Thursday night&amp;#039;s Scripps National Spelling Bee finale. More than 280 super spellers battled it out for the coveted award, with 40 students advancing to the semi-finals yesterday around 2 P.M. The finals kicked off about six hours later with only 11 contestants, including Mahankali, still standing. After beating out 10 finalists, the four-time returning contestant from Bayside, Queens, stood alone on stage and sailed through the first of his two last words, tokonoma. &amp;quot;Arvind, since you are the only speller left in this round, if you spell this next word correctly you will be the 2013 Scripps Spelling Bee Champion,&amp;quot; said head judge Mary Brooks. Spelling the final word\u2014knaidel, a German-Yiddish word meaning matzo dumpling\u2014correctly, Mahankali became the new champion as confetti fell from the ceiling. Fumbling on German words in 2011 and 2012, the third time proved to be the charm for Mahankali. &amp;quot;The German curse has turned into a German blessing,&amp;quot; the eighth grader said as he held up his trophy. Now $30,000 richer and no longer eligible to participate in the spelling bee, Mahankali said he&amp;#039;s retiring on a good note. The boy\u2014the first male champion in the past five years and the first New York winner in 16 years\u2014also took home a $2,500 savings bond from Merriam-Webster. How will the stellar student spend his summer after this mighty win? Studying physics, he said. Could you have correctly spelled knaidel? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/news/a47878/nyc-student-wins-national-spelling-be-with-knaidel/>