Can You Spell 'Championship?'

Twelve-year-old Samir Patel, runner-up in last year's National Spelling Bee, sailed through three rounds Thursday but then lost his chance at the national title.

After eight rounds, 13 spellers were to return Thursday night to compete for the championship and thousands of dollars during a nationally televised, prime-time final.

Asked to spell "eremacausis," Samir, who is home-schooled in Colleyville, Texas, seemed disappointed when the judges couldn't produce answers to his questions about the word's root.

He asked to hear the definition several times.

He put his hands on his hips and sighed into the microphone.

He buried his face in his hands.

He claimed a minute of "bonus time," to which spellers are entitled just once during competition.

He took a stab at spelling but, sadly for him, it came out wrong: "aeromocausis."

The audience erupted with loud sighs and applause as he exited the stage.

Round seven began with 21 spellers, including Samir. Among the 13 advancing to the next round were masters of such words as "boraginaceous," "anacoluthon" and "wapiti." Eight other spellers stumbled on "gigerium," "empyreumatic," "mirliton" and other words.

Thursday's competition was being televised live, with the afternoon championship rounds broadcast on ESPN. The winner was to be crowned Thursday night during a live broadcast on ABC that was to include vignettes of individual spellers.

The pace of competition on Thursday, in the basement ballroom of a Washington hotel, seemed slowed by the need to accommodate commercial breaks.

"We're out for another two-minute commercial break," or "We're out for about a minute and a half," bee director Paige Kimble announced frequently. The audience chuckled, competition paused and the spellers and others in the room used the opportunity to stretch their legs.

Outside the hotel, an Internet sports betting company was taking bets on the bee, including whether the winner would wear glasses and whether the final word would have an "e" in it.

Simon Noble, CEO of PinnacleSports.com, said his company had received about $70,000 in bets on seven propositions about the bee as of noon Thursday.

The competition began with 274 fourth- through eighth-graders.

The spellers sat below hot lights on the red-and-blue, made-for-TV stage. On Thursday, all wore matching white, short-sleeve polo shirts with the bee logo on the left chest.

Spellers made it to the finals by winning contests in the 50 states, as well as in American Samoa, the Bahamas, Canada, Europe, Guam, Jamaica, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

About one-fourth, or 66, were making repeat appearances, including two eighth-graders competing for the fifth and final time. Only one, Katharine Close of New Jersey, made it to the finals.

ESPN has broadcast the second day of the bee since 1994, but this year, in a nod to the popularity of "reality TV," the championship rounds were moved to ABC for a live, prime-time event before a larger viewing audience. The Walt Disney Co. owns both networks.

The winner goes home with more than $42,000 in cash and prizes.

The Louisville Courier-Journal started the bee in 1925. The E.W. Scripps Co., a media conglomerate, assumed sponsorship in 1941.