Lakes Entrance boasts two of the best young spellers in the state.
Year five Lakes Entrance Primary School student Remi Perera and year six St Brendan’s student Indi Rijs were victorious in last week’s Vicspell Spelling Bee state finals.
With students from all over eastern Victoria in the midst of a wild storm and widespread blackouts, the competition still received 100 per cent attendance.
While on paper the Casey students looked to take out first prize, they
were pipped at the post at both primary levels from the Lakes Entrance students.
At the East Gippsland zone final judge Norm McLennan looked at the results and commented “There must be something in the Lakes Entrance water.”.
Remi was, at the last minute, able to attend the finals due to a storm-cancelled school camp. He beat Krithik Kanisetty (Berwick Fields PS),Pranav Jithin (Brentwood Park PS), Khadijat Hanafi (Guthridge St PS), Estelle Agustin (St Paul’s AGS, Traralgon), Elliot Badereha (Bayles RPS), Stella Kuick (St Mary’s, Bairnsdale) and Xavier Mortimer (Fish Creek PS).
It was a long tussle for first and second place in the year six category.
A key moment was when Indi Rijs smiled when given the word ‘mannequin’. After the competition she confessed that her grandmother had tested her on that word when travelling from Lakes Entrance.
Indi finished ahead of Yohan Bala (Tulliallan PS), Shradda Manikandan (Tulliallan PS), Khadijat Hanafi (Guthridge St PS), George Yao (Brentwood Park PS), Matilda Cotton (Cowes PS), Ben Reville (Bayles RPS), Patrick Wu (St Paul’s AGS, Traralgon) and Teddy Bertino (St Mary’s, Sale).
