WASHINGTON, May 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Kavya Shivashankar, a 13-year-old speller from Olathe, Kan., won the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night.

Kavya was named the national champion in the Championship Round after correctly spelling the word 'Laodicean' which is defined as 'lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics.'

An eighth grader at California Trail Junior High School in Olathe, Kavya represented The Olathe News in this year's competition at the Grand Hyatt Washington. This was the fourth Scripps National Spelling Bee in which she competed.

The spelling competition began Tuesday with 293 competitors who qualified to compete in the Bee by winning locally sponsored bees in their home communities. The 2009 competition marked the largest field of competitors in the history of the event.

Rich Boehne, president and chief executive officer of The E.W. Scripps Company, declared Kavya the national champion and awarded her the engraved Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship loving cup immediately after the winning word was correctly spelled.

'Congratulations to Kavya who prevailed over some of the most challenging words known to humankind to emerge as the 2009 national champion,' Boehne said. 'At Scripps we're honored to be the host of the National Spelling Bee and we're amazed by the skills displayed each year in this celebration of academic excellence. Congratulations to all 11 million spellers who started the journey to Washington, and especially to the 293 champions who captivated the nation this week - one word at a time.'

Round-by-round results can be found online at www.spellingbee.com. The ABC Television Network broadcast the final rounds live, with replays tentatively scheduled to be aired on May 30 at 3 pm (ESPN2), June 2 at 11:30 pm (ESPNU), June 3 at 8:30 pm (ESPNU), and June 13 at 4 pm (ESPNU).