If you’ve ever struggled with where to put the ‘I’ in ‘receive’ or relied on autocorrect to spell ‘disappointed’ correctly, you know how difficult it is to spell complicated words on the fly — add to that having to verbally spell them out under bright stage lights while a clock ticks down seconds.

For every person present at the Arts Council Auditorium on Thursday, each student on the stage was a champion.

The 14th Dawn in Education National Spelling Bee, held in three age categories — 9-11, 12-14 and 15-17 — was called ‘A Spectacular Spelling Face-Off’ this year, and the Karachi regionals held on Oct 11 lived up to the claim indeed.

The annual event, organised by the Dawn Media Group in partnership with Oxford University Press, has now become one of the premier educational events in the country. As evidenced by the overwhelming numbers of applications from schools across Pakistan and the close competition between students in the final rounds, the honour of ‘Regional Champion’ is definitely something worth fighting for.

It all came down to having a strong vocabulary, and a good understanding of language, even if the pronunciations sounded foreign. Nine-year-old Murtaza Munir Farooqui spelled ‘sphenoid’ correctly, but bungled the last vowel of ‘neurotransmitter’.

Eleven-year-old Shehzeen Sohail got ‘manque’ wrong, but rattled off ‘henotheism’ correctly with incredible confidence. Regional Champion in the 9-11 category Raaed Mujtaba secured his victory by flawlessly spelling ‘transcendental’ in the first go.

As the winners were announced, Chief Guest Mark Rakestraw from British Deputy High Commission Karachi took to the stage and expressed surprise at the confidence of all the young hopefuls. "In today’s age of social media and spell-check, it’s great to see the beauty and complexity of English language celebrated in such a way,” he commented, accurately summarising the essence of the entire endeavour.

He also said he was glad to see 850 schools across Pakistan taking part in the Spelling Bee in its 14th year.

Towards the end, Dawn Media Group’s director of circulation Niloufer Patel thanked the children, parents and teachers of all the educational institutions that had participated in the competition. She particularly thanked Ameena Saiyid, chairperson of the Oxford University Press, for having supported Spelling Bee since its inception.

Championship results

9-11 age group

Regional Champion: Raaed Mujtaba Ashar (St. Michaels Convent School)

First Runner-up: Shehzeen Sohail Farooqui (Mama Parsi Girls Secondary School)

Second Runner-up: Murtaza Munir Farooqui (BVS Parsi High School)

12-14 age group

Regional Champion: Hiba Fatima (Convent of Jesus and Mary)

First Runner-up: Syed Imad Ali (BVS Parsi High School)

Second Runner-up: Kiran Khan (Convent of Jesus and Mary)

15-17 age group

Regional Champion: Lina Nauman (Reflections Girls School)

First Runner-up: Mohammad Zulfiqar Ali (Happy Home School O’Levels)

Second Runner-up: Mariam Shahabi (Mama Parsi Girls Secondary School)