Surrey teen Praneet Singh Arora has won the Spelling Bee of Canada National Championship, intermediate level.
The competition was held in Toronto on May 6.
Praneet, age 13, of Newton, competed in the category for children ages 12 to 14.
“He’s been participating for the last two or three years,” his dad, Jagjot Arora, told the Now-Leader. “He’s good at memorizing things. He participated last year, he was first in B.C., and then went to Ottawa and came in third in Canada, and this year he was first in B.C. and so he qualified for the nationals, and he was first there also.”
Praneet attends Tamanawis secondary school in Surrey. “Last year he was at Khalsa school.”
The spelling whiz, who lists reading among his hobbies, was not available for an interview because he was in class.
| Praneet Arora with trophy. (Photo: Spelling Bee of Canada) |
His winning words were Ostracod (a tiny crustacean) and Disreputable (not respectable in appearance or character).
The Spelling Bee of Canada is a not-for-profit “grassroots” organization that was established in Toronto in 1987 to provide a stimulating program outside regular school curriculum that focuses specifically on English language basics.
Since then, more than 50,000 children have participated.
The organization stages annual spelling bees for children ages six to 14, and its “theme” is “Education and Perseverance = Success.”
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram and follow Tom on Twitter