Nihar Janga, Jairam Hathwar
 

Fifth grader Nihar Janga has learned from Ricky Bobby: If you're not first, you're last.

He took that competitive spirit to the Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night. In a heated battle with Jairam Hathwar, Janga trolled his opponent after he stumbled over the word, "drahthaar."

Nihar and Jairam survived 25 rounds, including one round where they each misspelled back-to-back (the dreaded drahthaar round for Hathwar). They ended up being co-champs, with Jairam winning on "Feldenkrais" and Nihar on "gesellschafter."

When Nihar crushed his last word, he threw up an X in celebration. He also totally shunned Jairam's attempt at a high five.


Cold-blooded.

Despite his questionable sportsmanship, Nihar won over the crowd at the end of ESPN's coverage with one of the cuter victory speeches you will ever see:

Nihar earned recognition from a fellow flamboyant superstar, Dez Bryant, who also celebrates with the X. He offered Nihar tickets to a Cowboys game.


This is the third straight year the Spelling Bee has ended with co-champions. The Spelling Bee announced in April it would use harder words in the final rounds to avoid ending with co-champions, but that change didn't make a difference.

More Spelling Bee:
-- National Spelling Bee: Winning Words
-- National Spelling Bee Winner's Name Is Spelled Wrong In A News Headline
-- Toughest Names In Sports To Spell

-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.