Afeef Ahmed, a year 6 student in Australia, has won a major school spelling competition. About 200,000 students across the state entered the contest. In a spelling bee, pupils must say every letter of difficult words correctly out loud. If a student makes one mistake, they leave the stage immediately.
At the final event in Sydney, only five students remained in the last rounds. The competition became very tense when one wrong letter decided the result. Finalist Bobby Ivaneza went out because he forgot the second "e" in the word "unserviceable." Next, Afeef correctly spelled "immemorial." The other three finalists also missed letters in their words, making Afeef the winner.
Afeef said he was happy and surprised by his win. His mother, however, expected him to do well. She practiced with him for 30 minutes every night before bed, and she said that he reads many books.