Winners!

Last night, the first time in 52 years, two competitors in the highly competitive Scripps National Spelling Bee tied for the win.

Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York, and Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas, shared the title after a riveting final-round duel in which they nearly exhausted the 25 designated championship words. After they spelled a dozen words correctly in a row, they both were named champions.

Earlier, 14-year-old Sriram opened the door to an upset by 13-year-old Ansun after he misspelled "corpsbruder," a close comrade. But Ansun was unable to take the title because he got "antegropelos," which means waterproof leggings, wrong.

Sriram entered the final round as the favorite after finishing in third place last year. Ansun just missed the semifinals last year.

They become the fourth co-champions in the bee's 89-year history and the first since 1962.

"The competition was against the dictionary, not against each other," Sriram said after both were showered with confetti onstage. "I'm happy to share this trophy with him."

The greatest! KIDS TODAY! Get ON my lawn! ♥

The boys will each get their own trophy to take home, and they will not be obliged to split the cash and prize winnings that come with being the bee champion. They'll each get their own complete winner's lot.

[Content Note: Racism]

This should be just a happy story about two neat kids, but of course, because Hathwar and Sujoe are Indian-American, a bunch of fucking racist shitbirds had something to say about that. Seriously, if your first instinct at seeing two kids do something amazing is to complain they're not white, REEXAMINE YOUR FUCKING LIFE.

[End content note.]

Congratulations, Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe! You're awesome.