After the hard-fought and suspenseful contest that ran for hours, an elementary student from the Gwinnett is going to Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. On Friday, Burnette Elementary’s Abhiram Kapaganty beat out the 19 other Georgia students in 56th annual Georgia Spelling Bee.

The 11years old Abhiram persisted through 23 rounds, correctly spelling the words such as, “schipperke” (a breed of dog) and then “wedel” (to ski in the wedeln style) to claim the title. Abhiram  also gets $1,000 and paid expenses to the national bee.

To help the fifth grader to prepare for competition, Abhiram parents quizzed him for up to five hours a day for weeks.

Abhiram, an avid reader and also a Harry Potter fan, competes in the geography bees, said that he will take the weekend to relax.

After the trophies were presented at the competition, the runner-up Jahnvi Bhagat found Abhiram so she could shake his hand. Jahnvi, who is in 8th grade at the Cobb County’s Daniell Middle, will be the winner’s alternate for the national bee. The event is May 28 through June 3.The annual state bee is sponsored by the Georgia Association of Educators. The students came from all across the state.

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Richard McIntyre, the GAE’s spelling bee committee chairman, has been involved for decades and also was surprised by the 23-round competition. He said he could not remember a state bee that went over 15 rounds.

Only a couple of contestants had been eliminated by the fifth round, so McIntyre said that the words would get tougher.

By the 11th round, it was down to four. Things got interesting in the 17th round, when all the three remaining contestants missed a word. They were all brought back on the stage. But eventually, it was down to Abhiram and Jahnvi.

The word that finally took the 13 years old Jahnvi down is, "Vorlage," which is a type of skiing position.

Mrudula Duddempudi.