The Coca Cola national spelling bee finals are set for next week Friday. Some of the best primary school spellers are gearing up for the prestigious competition. They are Rhiki Alegria from Hummingbird Elementary and the Belize District, Ionie Briceno from Corozal’s Our Lady of Guadalupe RC, Samuel Koop from the Cayo District and Shepherd’s Academy, Mario Tiul from the Stann Creek District’s Red Bank Christian School, Angela Trujillo from Alginold Bennett, Orange Walk and Clementina Ojo from St. Peter Claver RC in Toledo. The Grand final takes place on June 8th at the countryside park in Spanish Lookout.

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Coca Cola National Spelling Bee is Today

The National Spelling Bee is tomorrow is today, Friday the 8th, at 9:30 in Countryside Park in Spanish Lookout. Good luck to all contestants. Thanks go out to Coca Cola for sponsoring this great event.

First National Spelling B Winner From Toledo

Today 12 of Belize's finest Primary School spellers went head to head as they battled to become this year's Spelling Bee Champ. The "Spellibrities" - as they are called comprise two representatives from each district - and they gathered at 9:30 this morning for The Grand Finale of the Coca-Cola National Spelling Bee at the Countryside Park in Spanish Lookout in the Cayo District.

It's the tournament's 18th year and first place winner Dayne Guy made history -becoming the first Spelling Bee Champ reigning from the Toledo District. Here's his crowning moment....

Monica Bodden
"How do you feel to be the Spelling B champ for this year?"

Dayne Guy, 1st winner
"I feel splendid."

Monica Bodden
"Tell me about all the hard work that you had to put in today?"

Dayne Guy, 1st winner
"I had to study late nights and sometimes I study in the day and at school. I did a lot of studying."

Monica Bodden
"How many words you think you actually gone through?"

Dayne Guy, 1st winner
"That's about over 5,000."

Monica Bodden
"What would you say to other students who want to take on the challenge?"

Dayne Guy, 1st winner
"Just study hard and keep your head up high."

Monica Bodden
"Tell me about your prizes. What did you won?"

Dayne Guy, 1st winner
"I won a computer; I won free tuition to any school and some accessories for the computer."

Glendora Guy, mother of Dayne
"I feel like a champion because this is the first time Toledo will be getting first place. So I feel very proud of that."

Monica Bodden
"Now tell me about all the studying that Dayne had to put in and the support that you and your husband gave to him?"

Glendora Guy, mother of Dayne
"Dayne had to give up his games. He had to spend most of his time studying and during the Easter break he did not have any time to relax, he studied. He actually got intense training during that time. Basically he would research for of the words. He would go on the internet. We try to find words from all areas; from all books, the dictionaries, from Encarta and he would study them, he would get the pronunciation and that's what he did."

Guy is from St Benedict RC School in Indianville.

Second place finisher was Karyn Cornejo of Kids First Child Development from the Stann Creek District and the 3rdplace went to Samuel Koop of Shepherd's Academy in the Cayo District.

Channel 7

The buzz about who won the Coca Cola Spelling Bee!

The National Spelling Bee finals took place this morning in Spanish Lookout. It was a nail biting experience for the twelve participants, but in the end a student from Toledo spelled his way through to the championship with a word he recognized, but many may not know what it means. Primary school students from the Stann Creek and Cayo Districts also placed among the top three. News Five’s Andrea Polanco captured the determining moments of this year’s competition.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Eleven year old Dane Guy spelled his way to the National Spelling Bee Championship title in the reserve round. The Standard five student of St. Benedict R.C took home the title for the first time ever to the Toledo District. In 2011, Dane made it to the finals but he didn’t get the first place; today he says he came prepared with a strategy and beat out eleven other spellers from across the country.

Dane Guy, 1^st Place, National Coca-Cola Spelling Bee

“I’m feeling splendid. I love competition and everything that has to do with competition.”

Andrea Polanco

“So you’ve been here last year; you went back and how did you prepare for this year?”

Dane Guy

“I just worked harder.”

Andrea Polanco

“Okay, so who worked with you in terms of studying?”

Dane Guy

“My mom, my teachers and the school.”

Andrea Polanco

“Did you expect to win today?”

Dane Guy

“When I spelled the reserve words, I said I would win.”

Andrea Polanco

“But you spelled those words so easily; did you come across those words when you were studying?”

Dane Guy

“Well I just analyzed some words like beryllium and eurotrophic.”

Andrea Polanco

“So when you got the words, you figured ‘what I got dis?’”

Dane Guy

“Yes miss.”

Glendora Guy, Dane Guy’s Mother

“Words cannot express how I feel; I feel very elated; I feel very happy and proud of my son. Well first of all, we had to work even during holidays and he had very limited time to play and he studied on his own as well. I think he was self-motivated because he studied a lot on his own too. He wanted to win because he came last year and he said, ‘mom, I don’t care I will win next year,’ and he came with that in mind and so that was what happened.”

Second place went to Karyn Cornejo of Kids First Child Development in Stann Creek. The eleven year old standard six student says preparation for the finals started long ago.

Andrea Polanco

“How did you feel going into the reserve round. What were you thinking at that moment?”

Karyn Cornejo, 2^nd Place, National Coca-Cola Spelling Bee

“Completely nervous and I was praying.”

Andrea Polanco

“You got one of the reserve words correct; how did you break that word down in order to spell it?”

Karyn Cornejo

“Miss because I have a site that I go on and I get the words from that.”

Andrea Polanco

“Awrite. What was preparation like? How long have you been preparing for the national spelling bee?”

Karyn Cornejo

“From the last two spelling bees I have been preparing.”

Woodrow West, Karyn Cornejo’s Step-Dad

“From I know her she was a very smart girl and I just start to push her and with my trophies that I won she always asked me how comes I won those trophies so I told her she can do the same but in school you know because I know she was a smart girl. With the help of her mother, her mom pushes her a lot with school work and gets her around the computer to spell those words that you don’t see in the book so as to be able to spell here; you know.”

David Craig, Sales and Marketing Manager Bowen & Bowen says that the staging of the eighteenth edition of the Spelling Bee is an important tradition that is here to stay:

David Craig

“We’re really, really proud; really good. We could not have done it of course without the support of the Ministry of Education. They have provided the institutional framework to be able to execute this contest at such a high level for such an incredible long time. You deh say things bruk up dah Belize; Belize bruk up everything? They’re not gonna break up the Coca-Cola Spelling Bee unless we are absolutely sure that there are private organizations that will be willing to take it up at the time. For eighteen years we have been here putting the spotlight on such an important scale for these students. We as employers know that when we get resumes we need to look at the spelling and we can make a decision based on spelling so we want to produce a new group of spellers that can come to us and come work for Bowen and Bowen.”

Samuel Koop of Good Shepherd’s Academy in the Cayo District was third. The top finishers were rewarded with an assortment of prizes, including laptops, educational materials and trophies. The other highlight of the day was an appearance by A-Zee and other entertaining performances. Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.

The Louisiana Government School from the Orange Walk District bested Spelling Bee Banner Competition.

Channel 5