Harini Logan, a 14-year-old from Texas, wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee in a tiebreaker.

Harini Logan, 14, of San Antonio, won the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, after the competition was so close that a first-ever’spell-off’ was required to crown a champion.

Logan receives $50,000 from Scripps, as well as additional cash prizes and Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica reference books.

She defeated Vikram Raju, 12, of Denver, after their neck-and-neck competition necessitated a’spell-off,’ a first in the Bee’s history. The second-place award is $25,000, while the third-place prize is $10,000.

They took first place in the 94th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, which attracted spellers ages 7 to 15 from all over the United States and as far away as Guam. The tournament took place in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. this year.

Each contender has 90 seconds to accurately spell as many words as possible in the spell-off. Raju took the first turn and accurately spelt 15 of the 19 words he attempted.

Logan, who waited in a sound-proof room for her turn, managed to spell 21 of the 26 words she attempted properly.

Both had the identical list of words given to them, with a bell ringing to indicate when it was time to go on to the next word.