Congratulations to Siddharth Varanasi from Canton Charter School

Siddharth Varanasi won The Detroit News 2010 Spelling Bee yesterday by correctly spelling "pugilist". It was closely contested competition as Siddharth (11), a sixth-grader from Canton Charter School in Canton Township, battled it out with 60 of the best spellers from across Wayne County for about 11 rounds before the final rounds. The event was held at Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

Congratulations to Siddharth and to the runner up Audrey Jones, 11, a sixth-grader from Our Lady of Victory school in Northville.

Siddharth now moves on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee to be held June 2-4 in Washington, D.C. He will face 300 of the nation's top spellers, and he said he feels nervous about that competition. But he said he will step up his studying for the national bee. "I try to do it year-round," he said. "I use note cards for practice."

Read more about this story in Detroit News.