Told to take a deep breath before his final word, “eclaircissement,” he didn’t ask a single question before spelling it correctly, and he pumped his fists and collapsed to the stage after saying the final letter.

Two rounds earlier, Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane misspelled their words, clearing a path for Faizan, but instead of making sure he knew the word, “commelina,” Faizan let his showmanship get the better of him.

“K-A-M,” he said, then stopped himself. “OK, let me do this. Oh, shoot!” “Just ring the bell,” he told head judge Mary Brooks, who obliged.

“So now you know what happens,” Brooks said, and the other two spellers returned to the stage.

Upon his return to the microphone, Sarv chimed in: “This is surprising!” But Sarv misspelled again, followed in the next round by Sarvadnya, and Faizan stayed just calm enough to ensure his competitors wouldn’t get back to the microphone.

It was a riveting conclusion to a competition that started in 1925 and appears to have a bright future. Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company, had a few dozen former champions on hand to celebrate the centennial of an event that began when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington.

Faizan lost to Bruhat Soma last year in a tiebreaker known as a “spell-off.” He became only the fifth runner-up to come back and win and the first since since Sean Conley in 2001. (AP) NSA NSA NSA NSA