Fort Smith 10-year-old wins 2023 Arkansas State Spelling Bee

FORT SMITH, Ark. — Can you spell pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis? Chances are you probably can't, but Woods Elementary student Zeeshan Anower can.

Zeeshan Anower, a 10-year-old fifth grader from Fort Smith is the 2023 Arkansas State Spelling Bee champion. Like many his age, Anower has a love for video games.

"I am highly interested in playing my Nintendo and it's just getting called 'Bakugan," Anower said. "I'm really good." He also has an interest in sign language.

It wasn't until around last year that the spelling bee peaked his interest. He says his brother insipred him. His brother competed in the spelling bee last year, but fell in the county spelling bee.

"So I was just trying to raise the bar higher," said Anower.

"Approximately 85,000 children throughout the state of Arkansas participated in county spelling bees," said Rob Roedal, Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas director of communications.  

Anower beat out students from 422 schools across 55 counties. He now heads to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. His journey began by winning his classroom spelling bee. From there, he had to win his school's, the county bee and then the state.

"I'm kind of surprised that I was gonna hold the state title," said Anower. "But I was thinking that my opponent was pretty sure going to win."

He and his opponent cheered each other on for 22 rounds. The two eventually made state history.

"We had to have a spell off which we've never had to do in the state of Arkansas before," Roedal said.

"I'm not aware of any young man or young woman from Arkansas winning the national spelling bee, but I am 199% sure that Zeeshan is going to be our first winner," said Roedal.

"There are a bunch of other kids out there who are top of the top and just hyper-intellectual, said Anower. "I was like, oh, okay. This is what may or may not be a pleasant experience."

Although he is nervous, Anower is already preparing for the national spelling bee. He says he has multiple study resources and studies from the Scripps National Spelling Bee provided list of 4,000 words. Anower also studies words inside the dictionary.

Anower and his family will head to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. on May 28.