Ghana’s Afua Ansah applauded for reaching Scripps National Spelling Bee finals

A remarkable feat which is being widely applauded and celebrated, Ghana’s Afua Ansah became the country’s first Scripps (U.S.) National Spelling Bee finalist.

The 14 year-old from Ridge Church School in Accra, made history when she made it in the top 45 finals of the 2016 Scripps Spelling Bee competition.

This year’s competition comprised of 285 spellers from various U.S. states and countries including Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the Bahamas.

Ansah, the seventh grader from Accra battled it out with other talented spellers in the preliminary test, preliminary round two and three, before reaching the final.

Ansah had the second highest score in the preliminary exam, scoring 29 out of 30 points, before she misspelled “Liechtenstein” in the final. Despite bowing out of the competition in the final round, Ansah, who draws inspiration from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie held her own.