Sydney student Afeef Ahmed wins New South Wales Premier's Spelling Bee

Year 6 student Afeef Ahmed won the NSW Premier's Spelling Bee, the state-level spelling contest in New South Wales, Australia, at a small theatre hall in Sydney's west on Friday afternoon. Each round is sudden death, so a single wrong letter eliminates a contestant.

Thirty-four primary school students reached the final. They earned their places by winning online regional finals in August, after about 200,000 students competed in spelling bees across 1,070 public schools in the state. The finalists represent the top 0.03%.

How the contest unfolded

Contestants began with "seen" words they could practise at home before moving on to "unseen" words. The event was hosted by ABC presenter Rae Johnston. Seven students went out in the first round and another seven in the second. A further 13 fell over the next four rounds. After "pernicious" and "sagacious" eliminated two more, five year 6 students remained: Ahmed, Bobby Ivaneza, Alesha Kahfandi, Caroline Wang and Maximilian Lumley.

In round nine, Ivaneza, who was junior state runner-up in 2024, omitted the second "e" in "unserviceable" and was out. After Ahmed correctly spelled "immemorial", the other three failed: Kahfandi on "antepenultimate", Wang on "parmigiana" and Lumley on "genealogy".

Deciding second place

A separate playoff was needed for runner-up. Wang was eliminated immediately, while Kahfandi and Lumley matched each other for five rounds, both right or both wrong. Kahfandi then missed "vociferous" and Lumley spelled "apocalypse" correctly to take second place.

Ahmed's mother said she had helped him train for months, half an hour every night before bed. The winner said he at first "didn't realise" he had won, but felt happy when it was announced.