Can You Spell 'Winner?'

The final round of the 73rd National Spelling Bee provided all the tension of the most competitive sporting event, CBS News Correspondent Drew Levinson reports from Washington. The 40 fifth to eighth graders remaining from the 138 who started grappled with words designed to stump them.

Luftmensch. Echt. Bedizen.

Each speller had a unique way of concentrating. Some crouched, others kicked or wrote with imaginary ink. But one by one they were eliminated.

And then there were was one:

Speaking slowly but confidently, George Abraham Thampy of Maryland Heights, Mo., correctly spelled "demarche," a step or maneuver, to win the 2000 Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.

The 12-year-old, who is schooled at home, tied for fourth in 1998 and finished in a third-place tie last year. Last week he placed second in the National Georgraphy Bee.

The hunt for America's best young speller drew to end as difficult words knocked out 98 of the 110 contestants who survived Wednesday's opening rounds. Only a dozen remained for the final words on Friday afternoon.

The first speller in the fourth round, Ruth Hulbert of Palmer, Alaska, hesitated slightly after being given "desiccate," to dry up.

"D-E-S-S-I-C-A-T-E?" the 14-year-old tried. The elimination bell rang.

Rebecca Garthoff, 13, of Jefferson, Maine, began crying after being given "golem," thinking she was spelling the word incorrectly. But she struggled through her tears and spelled the word correctly, getting a hearty burst of applause from the crowd. "Golem," from Jewish folklore, is a robot, or human figure created by occult rites.

Sometimes nervousness seemed to get in the way. Evelyn Eisele of Denver closed her eyes and then tried spelling on her hand. "G-A-U-T-A?" she spelled. She rolled her eyes in disgust when she found out the cheese was spelled "Gouda."

Also not a cheese whiz was Henry Pollock, 13, of Urbana, Ill. He was asked to spell "Camembert," a French soft cheese. "Camumbere," he answered.

Jason Lyle Black, 12, of Livermore, Calif., was not quite sure when the official pronouncer, Alex Cameron, said "noctilucent."

"What?" Black exclaimed, before asking for repeated pronunciations and definitions of the word, which means visible or glowing at night. Finally, the judges intervened and asked the 12-year-old to repeat the word and then spell it.

"Noctilucent," Jason said. "N-O-C-T-A-L-U-C-E-N-T." The bell rang.

"At least he went down kicking and screaming," one parent could be heard to say.

Samuel Pittman of Bakersfield, Calif., also looked puzzled after gave him "naology," the study of sacred edifices. "Naology? he asked, before sighing into the microphone. "N-A-O-L-O-G-Y?" he guessed.

"Yes!" the 14-year-old pumped his fist after the judges nodded.

One-hundred-and-thirty-eight children were eliminated from the be on Wednesday after 10 hours of quizzing. The youngsters, ages 9 to 15, fielded 597 words on the first day of the two-day competition, organizers said.

First-round words were taken from a 3,500-word study booklet designed by Scripps Howard and from the word lists most sponsors use at their local bees. But for the final rounds, words are taken from Webster's Third New International Dictionary and its addenda, which contain more than 460,000 words.

The contestants, most sponsored by their local newspapers, all won regional bees to qualify. The top prize is $10,000, a choice of encyclopedias and other awards. Scripps Howard, the newspaper group based in Cincinnati, coordinates the national finals and produces the word lists and study materials.