WASHINGTON (AP) – Evan O’Dorney always eats fish before his spelling bees. The brain food apparently has served him well: He’s the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.

The 13-year-old from Danville, Calif., aced “serrefine” Thursday night to become the last youngster standing at the 80th annual bee. He won a tense duel with Nate Gartke of Spruce Grove, Alberta, who was trying to become the first Canadian to win the bee.

Evan won a trophy and a $35,000 prize, plus a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond and a set of reference works. He said he knew how to spell the winning word – a noun describing small forceps – as soon as the pronouncer said it. Evan said he wasn’t surprised to win, but he confessed that spelling isn’t his top interest.

“My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together,” he said. “And with the music I like to let out ideas by composing notes – and the spelling is just a bunch of memorization.”

Earlier Thursday, Samir Patel’s dream of winning the national spelling title, a goal that dominated the last five years of his life, ended in one quick moment with the word “clevis.”

Spectators gasped as the 13-year-old Texan spelled out the word for a type of fastening device as “c-l-e-v-i-c-e.” The error eliminated him in the fifth round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Samir, considered by many to be this year’s favorite, wiped away tears as he talked about it later.

“I just outsmarted myself, he said. “It was an easy word. I just made a stupid mistake.”

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