Two Americans, Vanya Shivashankar, 13, of Olathe, Kansas, and Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, of Chesterfield, Missouri, have been declared joint winners of this year's National Spelling Bee in Marlyland, United States.

This is the second year in a row that the contest has ended in a tie.

Earlier this afternoon, Jamaica's Sara-Beth McPherson was eliminated in the semis - round five - to tie in 39th place with the other contestants who left the competition at that stage.

Meanwhile, Shivashankar correctly spelled the word 'scherenschnitte' while Venkatachalam correctly spelled 'nunatak' to lift the trophy.

The spellers were named as joint winners because there were not enough words left on the competition's list to continue the face off.

This year, some 285 spellers competed for the grand title.