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Scripps National Spelling Bee crowns co-champions

For the third straight year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has ended in a tie.

Fifth-grader Nihar Janga and seventh-grader Jairam Hathwar shared this year’s title.

The two young contestants beat out nearly 300 competitors from all across the country.

At 11 years old, Janga, from Austin, Texas, is one of the youngest competitors to ever be crowned champion.

Hathwar, a 13-year-year old from Corning, N.Y., is now the second co-champion in his family. His older brother, Sriram, was a 2014 co-champion.

Janga and Hathwar survived two days of live competition and exhausted all 25 championship rounds.

After outlasting the eight other finalists, Janga and Hathwar remained locked in a heated battle, nailing words like “lygaeid,” “villancico” and “ynambu.”

Janga had two chances to win the trophy outright, but stumbled on “tetradrachm” and “ayacahuite.”

Finally, after three hours had passed, Hathwar earned his share of the trophy by correctly spelling “Feldenkrais,” a form of somatic education. Janga followed suit by nailing “gesellschaft.”