There was a lot of nail-biting, fist-clenching and knee-joggling as primary school students from across New South Wales vied for winner of the Premier's Spelling Bee.
Out of 130,000 participating students, only 85 made it to the State Final, which was held in the inner Sydney suburb of Ultimo.
In the Junior category, students in Year 3 and 4 rolled their tongues over scientific jargon, musical terminology, place names and even types of pasta.
Words like "bouzouki", "culottes" and "seneschal" helped cull the field.
Eventually only two were left and and Mica Krzyzanowski from Coogee Public School went head-to head with Grace Dhu from Keiraville Public School to spell the deciding word - "impugn".
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Unluckily, Mica missed the silent "g", leaving 8-year-old Grace to take home the big trophy.
The Premier's Spelling Bee was introduced in 2004 as a way to promote improved literacy.
"Teachers like it, parents like it and the students like it," NSW Department of Education spokesman Lloyd Cameron said.
"It's fascinating in this technological age that something like this still resonates with people."
