Its Indian Americans again who have done it at the National Spelling Bee – Vanya Shivashankar, 13, of Olathe, Kansas, and Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, of Chesterfield, Missouri, were declared co-winners of the National Spelling Bee.

It is the second year in a row in which the contest has ended in a tie.

Vanya & Gokul were among the 25 Indian-Americans who made it to the list of 49 semi-finalists of the 88th Scripps National Spelling Bee, which just finished at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland and was broadcasted live on ESPN2 today, May28.

For several years now, Indian-Americans have put up formidable challenges to their competitors and won most of the prestigious spelling awards in the United States.

This was the fifth appearance for Vanya (tied for 10th place in 2012, tied for 5th place in 2013 and tied for 13th place in 2014 & Gokul was considered favourite this year (Gokul finished third in 2014).

Even the competition’s announcers marveled at the finalists’ cool demeanor as the bee stretched into its final moments.

“They’re as calm and cool under pressure as anyone we’ve ever seen here,” one of the ESPN announcers said.

“It maybe impossible to stump these two tonight,” he said later.

And ultimately, it was.