Lightning round tiebreaker to help determine National Spelling Bee winner

The eight co-champions of the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee (AP)

The Scripps National Spelling Bee in the US is undergoing a major overhaul to ensure it can identify a single champion, adding vocabulary questions and a lightning-round tiebreaker to this year’s competition.

The 96-year-old contest has in the past included vocabulary on written tests, but never in the high-stakes oral competition rounds, where one mistake eliminates a speller.