mojo
03-18-2002, 08:53 PM
http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/309807p-2675924c.html
Parents of 2 students claim victory in Colorado spelling bee
By ROBERT SANCHEZ, Rocky Mountain News of Colorado
DENVER (March 18, 2002 9:10 a.m. EST) - Just when you thought the Olympic-like controversies ended last month in Salt Lake City, along come two seventh-graders with big vocabularies.
The parents of both students claimed victory Saturday at the Rocky Mountain News 62nd Annual Colorado State Spelling Bee, with the second-place finisher's family arguing with judges and threatening to file a protest over the results.
Kiran Kadam, father of 13-year-old Samira Kadam, claims his daughter would have won the event had pronouncer Charley Samson not goofed and spelled "paralogize" - a word he says Samir knew.
"This is absolutely ridiculous," said Kadam, who added that his daughter was "cheated" out of a trip to Washington, D.C., and a chance to compete at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.
"I can't believe it," Kadam said. "It's totally devastating for (Samira)."
It all started after the 26th round, when Samira and 12-year-old Pratyush Buddiga, of Colorado Springs, began spelling's version of a tennis match.
If one contestant missed a word, the other got a chance to correct the spelling. If that spelling was correct, along with the spelling of the next word, that contestant won.
After spelling quotidian and thurible, Samira flubbed the word farthingale. Pratyush got it right but missed a chance to end it all, incorrectly spelling paralogize - a verb meaning to reason falsely.
"Sorry, it's p-a-r-a-l..." Samson said before trailing off. "Oh no."
Judges conferred for several minutes and decided to restart with another word.
Samira correctly spelled symbiosis but later misspelled lycanthrope, which Pratyush corrected. He spelled osculatory for the victory.
The Mountain Ridge Middle School student shook his head and smiled.
"I was really nervous up there," Pratyush said, avoiding any talk of controversy.
Unlike her parents, Samira blamed her loss on other things.
"I thought I knew the words I missed, and I guess I should have gone a little slower," said Samira, who attends The Manning School in Golden. "I missed a word, but it's OK."
Judges were certain that Samira's family had little ground to file a protest with state spelling bee officials. Since the round restarted, they said, both finalists had a chance to win.
But Samira's father didn't see it that way.
"If she got paralogize right, she would have gotten symbiosis and it would have been over," he said. "I know she knew paralogize. We went over that word again and again."
Other parents were just happy their children made the final round of 34, beating out more than 200 other elementary and middle school students from throughout the state.another point case as to why typos suck :hehehmm:
Parents of 2 students claim victory in Colorado spelling bee
By ROBERT SANCHEZ, Rocky Mountain News of Colorado
DENVER (March 18, 2002 9:10 a.m. EST) - Just when you thought the Olympic-like controversies ended last month in Salt Lake City, along come two seventh-graders with big vocabularies.
The parents of both students claimed victory Saturday at the Rocky Mountain News 62nd Annual Colorado State Spelling Bee, with the second-place finisher's family arguing with judges and threatening to file a protest over the results.
Kiran Kadam, father of 13-year-old Samira Kadam, claims his daughter would have won the event had pronouncer Charley Samson not goofed and spelled "paralogize" - a word he says Samir knew.
"This is absolutely ridiculous," said Kadam, who added that his daughter was "cheated" out of a trip to Washington, D.C., and a chance to compete at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.
"I can't believe it," Kadam said. "It's totally devastating for (Samira)."
It all started after the 26th round, when Samira and 12-year-old Pratyush Buddiga, of Colorado Springs, began spelling's version of a tennis match.
If one contestant missed a word, the other got a chance to correct the spelling. If that spelling was correct, along with the spelling of the next word, that contestant won.
After spelling quotidian and thurible, Samira flubbed the word farthingale. Pratyush got it right but missed a chance to end it all, incorrectly spelling paralogize - a verb meaning to reason falsely.
"Sorry, it's p-a-r-a-l..." Samson said before trailing off. "Oh no."
Judges conferred for several minutes and decided to restart with another word.
Samira correctly spelled symbiosis but later misspelled lycanthrope, which Pratyush corrected. He spelled osculatory for the victory.
The Mountain Ridge Middle School student shook his head and smiled.
"I was really nervous up there," Pratyush said, avoiding any talk of controversy.
Unlike her parents, Samira blamed her loss on other things.
"I thought I knew the words I missed, and I guess I should have gone a little slower," said Samira, who attends The Manning School in Golden. "I missed a word, but it's OK."
Judges were certain that Samira's family had little ground to file a protest with state spelling bee officials. Since the round restarted, they said, both finalists had a chance to win.
But Samira's father didn't see it that way.
"If she got paralogize right, she would have gotten symbiosis and it would have been over," he said. "I know she knew paralogize. We went over that word again and again."
Other parents were just happy their children made the final round of 34, beating out more than 200 other elementary and middle school students from throughout the state.another point case as to why typos suck :hehehmm: