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Quincy boy, 10, wins his 2nd Bee:
Akshat Shekhar is champion again in spelling contest

Published in "The Patriot Ledger" on March 27, 2006
by Kaitlin Keane

Akshat Shekhar of Quincy may have been the youngest person onstage, but he left older competitors spellbound in the 23rd annual Patriot Ledger Spelling Bee.

For the second year in a row, the 10-year-old Central Middle School pupil out-spelled 44 other students, defending his title as the youngest champ in the regional bee’s history.

Akshat won in the final round Saturday after he successfully spelled dulcinea (a mistress or sweetheart), and endostracum (the innermost layer of a shell).

Akshat will go to Washington, D.C., to represent the South Shore in the 79th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 31 to June 1. Last year, he was the youngest student in the national contest and placed 71st.

Akshat’s performance in last year’s national contest was the best by a Ledger champion since 2000, when Kara Hadge of Dedham made it to the fourth round and placed 65th. In 1997, Christine Lombardo of Milton made it to the seventh round and came in 10th.

Akshat started competing in spelling and math bees at age 6. After being the first 9-year-old to win the Patriot Ledger Bee in 2005, this year’s title came more naturally to him.

“There was less pressure this year,” Akshat said. “I knew I could do it. I just had to perform.”

But Akshat’s father, Shitanshu Shekhar, was a little less calm during the compeition.

“I was more nervous than him,” Shekhar said.

Each speller advanced to Saturday’s competition at Lombardo’s in Randolph after winning a spelling bee at their middle school.

They faced difficult and obscure words.

“Collywobbles” (pain in the stomach or bowels), “frondescence” (the time a species of plants unfolds its leaves) and “obsequy” (a funeral rite), all tripped up veteran spellers.

Nicholas Haglof, a seventh-grader from New Testament School in Plymouth, took second place. Haglof also competed in last year’s regional competition.

Robert Moura, an eighth-grader at Silver Lake Regional Middle School in Kingston, won third place.

“When he is up there, and I don’t even know the word, it’s intimidating,” said Robert Moura, Robert’s father.

The younger Moura, whose twin brother competed in the regional bee for two years, lost in the final round with “armistice.”

“I was actually impressed by a lot of the words I knew how to spell,” Robert said. “I never expected this.”

In addition to a trip to Washington, Akshat received a $100 U.S. series EE savings bond donated by Jay Sugarman, chairman and chief executive officer at iStar Financial, and a Webster’s Third New International Dictionary donated by Merriam-Webster.

The runner-up received a $300 U.S. savings bond donated by Eastern Bank, a Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary donated by Merriam-Webster, and a $40 Amazon.com gift certificate donated by the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The third-place winner received a $200 U.S. savings bond donated by Eastern Savings Bank and a $25 gift certificate to a local bookstore.

Akshat will begin preparing for his second showing in Washington, but he plans to take a day off to celebrate his victory.

“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I’ll start training, but not today.”