Spelling whizz

Josiah Brown, of Invercargill, won yesterday's Otago Southland Vegemite Spelling Bee final in Dunedin and will head to Wellington in February for the national final along with second-place-getter Josh Whitney.

The boys were among 13 year 8 regional finalists squaring off for places in the final.

The national winner will represent New Zealand at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the United States.

The top two were part of a large contingent from Invercargill's James Hargest College. Of the remaining competitors, two were from Middlemarch and one from Te Anau.

The competition was rapid-fire, with competitors eliminated in quick succession with words like lethargic, unerringly, cranial and semantics.