Miami sixth-grader eliminated from national spelling bee

Vasundara Govindarajan had already exceeded her family’s high expectations when she made it to the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee . But the sixth-grader at the Archimedean Academy in Miami was eliminated Thursday when she missed the word “reseau,” which means a network or grid that usually refers to meteorological stations.

“I felt pretty sad when I made that mistake, because I kind of studied that word. Then I just went blank when I went on the stage,” said Vasundara, 12.

Vasundara was competing with 44 other spellers from across the nation that survived the first three rounds of elimination that started Tuesday. The Bee, held at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center near Washington, D.C., started with 284 contestants and was continuing late Thursday.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Miami sixth-grader eliminated from national spelling bee."