Cover the word "unserviceable" and try spelling it out loud. Did you remember both e's?
At a spelling bee in western Sydney on November 6, Bobby Ivaneza missed the second "e" and was out. Just one round earlier, all five students still in the contest had spelled their words correctly. Now there were four.
They were competing in the senior final of the 2026 New South Wales Premier's Spelling Bee. About 210,000 students took part in school spelling bees across the state this year. Only 68 made it to the state finals, with 34 in each of the two age groups. Contestants started with words they could practise at home, then moved on to words they hadn't been given in advance.
With four students left, Afeef Ahmed faced "immemorial," as in "from time immemorial." He got it right. The other three missed their words: "antepenultimate," "parmigiana" and "genealogy." Ahmed was the champion, though it took him a moment to realise it.
The contest for second place took longer. Alesha Kahfandi and Maximilian Lumley stayed level for five rounds. When one got a word right, so did the other. When one got a word wrong, so did the other.
Then Kahfandi missed "vociferous," a word that can mean loud and forceful. Lumley stepped up to the microphone and took a deep breath. His word was "apocalypse." He got it right, and the audience cheered.
Ahmed had spent months practising with his mother for half an hour before bed each night. After the contest, the new champion said he thought the words in the battle for second place were harder than the ones he had been asked to spell.