Schuylkill County’s top speller unfortunately had a short run at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Tuesday afternoon.
Daniel Kim, from Frackville and a 7th grader at Assumption BVM, misspelled ‘rafflesia’ in the first round of the Preliminaries of the Bee.
Kim only used one F in his spelling and heard the dreaded ding of the bell to notify him he was incorrect.
Rafflesia is also known as the stinking corpse lily. It’s considered one of the largest flowers in the world and is native to southeast Asia.
Kim advanced to the National Spelling Bee by winning the Schuylkill County Spelling Bee back in March.
He was one of 245 spellers at this year’s National Bee. Kim was 1 of 54 spellers eliminated in the first Preliminary round.
Photo used with permission: Craig Hudson / Scripps National Spelling Bee
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