By Meena Kar
June 5, (THAINIDAN NEWS) Anamika Veeramani became one of the most talked about teens in America, in spite of not being from the entertainment industry, by winning the 83rd Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship 2010 that was held this Friday.

The competition took place at the Grand Hyatt in Washington DC. The participants aged between 8 to 15 years went through several rounds and eliminations to reach the finale where only ten competed against each other on Friday.

In total, Anamika Veeramani beat 272 other contestants to hold the coveted prize. The winning word for Anamika Veeramani was ’stromuhr’ which she later said she had studied before. During the competition she also said that she made some informed guesses especially with the words ‘epiphysis’ and ‘mirin’.

The competition was broadcast live on ABC network and the pressure was immense on the contestants due to the lighting and camera adjustments for the live feed. Anamika Veeramani showed her cool throughout the competition.

She later thanked her family for the support. She specially thanked her mother for preparing her for the competition and her brother for helping her out with the geographical words. She was tied at 5th in last year’s competition.

This year’s favorite Tim Ruiter saw an elimination in the 4th round. The two contestants who tied in the 2nd place were Shantanu Srivatsa, 13, and Adrian Gunawan, 14.

Anamika Veeramani said that she wants to write books in high school, get into Harvard and become a cardiovascular surgeon.

She won a cash prize of $30000, a savings bond of $2500 and $2700 in reference books from Encyclopedia Britannica.