Vismaya Kharkar - Salt Lake Valley Champion (2011 and 2012)

Speller #254 - Vismaya Kharkar has participated in the Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee since 2009 and has done amazing all those years, including 2011 and 2012. I do not remember what word she misspelled in 2009, but in 2010 I do not remember what happened with sarsaparilla, but there was some confusion with the word.

During the 2010 Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee I remember when she received the word Qatari, she turned to the pronouncer and asked something like, "If the word has a capital letter, do you have to say that it is capital?" She knew it, and I remember another of her words was cheka.

After that Bee my mom said that Vismaya would make it to nationals one day, do outstanding, and possibly win.  She has made it to nationals, done outstanding, and all she needs to do now is win. Now that she is out of the Bee for this year, she can start studying for next year. Utah has never had a champion, but it is possible that she may be first. Her fellow Utah spellers: #252 - Jared Ward and and #253 - Sophie Choate may be back next year.

Salt Lake Valley Champions and Winning Words:
2009: Henry Korous (precocious)
2010: Miranda Hulsey (plutonium)
2011: Vismaya Kharkar (infarction)
2012: Vismaya Kharkar (aberrant)

2011 National Spelling Bee

• Round 2: maillot
• Round 3: affianced

2012 National Spelling Bee

• Round 1: kielbasa
• Round 2: Requiem
• Round 4: dysthymia
• Round 5: allothogenic
• Round 6: pissaladiere (pisaladierre)

No speller from Utah has done this well. Last year, Anna-Marie Sprenger made it to Round 5 before misspelling privatim as privatum, but there is an actual word in Latin spelled privatum, which has a similar meaning ("not openly or in public")

Good luck to the Nine Championship Finalists tonight!

Update on June 1, 2012: http://m.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile2/54218048-218/kharkar-national-bee-spelling.html.csp