"To me, that's what you call grit"

In the end, he
defeated Akshay Buddiga, a 13-year-old from Colorado
Springs, Colo., who had briefly collapsed on stage rounds earlier.

Within
seconds of crumpling, Akshay stood up and, to the amazement of the
judges, immediately started spelling his word: "alopecoid," which means
like a fox. He got it perfectly, drawing a standing ovation.

He was led off stage for a medical check and returned for the next
round.

Akshay
made it into the final twosome while sitting on a chair at the
microphone, looking weak, his questions to the judges barely loud
enough to hear.

"To me, that's what you call grit," said Paige Kimble, the bee
director. "It was an extraordinary circumstance."