By Bill Straub
Scripps Howard News Service
Young Tino Delamerced continued his ride in the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday afternoon on the back of a deloul -- a swift Arabian riding camel.
Tino, 13, a seventh grader at The Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati, hemmed and hawed several times as he worked his way through the word, receiving a warning at one point that he was about to run out of time.
After asking for the word origin three times -- it is Arabaic, then French then English -- and twice seeking the definition, Tino provided the correct spelling, seeming to surprise himself in the process.
The correct spelling provides an opportunity for Tino to slide into this evening finals at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Washington DC. Only 12 spellers out of the original 243 will make it. The semi-finals will continue until there are only 12 spellers left -- meaning Tino may be called on to spell another word this afternoon.
Tino, the only remaining Cincinnati-area speller, is sponsored by WCPO-TV, channel 9 in Cincinnati. WCPO is owned by the E.W. Scripps Co., which sponsors the annual event. No one from Cincinnati has ever won the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
