Olympic athletes were finding themselves shut out from medals by hundredths of a second in Turin, Italy.

But Haley Boblink, last year's Times Spelling Bee regional seventh-grade champ, wasn't about to be tripped up by a hundredth. The word, in her case.

"I still think I was right," she said just 10 minutes after going down on the word at the Hammond District Spelling Bee at Maywood School.

Later that morning, the judge and spelling bee director agreed. The word does have a second "d," just like the St. Paul Lutheran eighth-grader spelled it.

A typo on the official word list for the event had it spelled "hundreth."

Champions know their stuff. After spelling the word and coming off the stage, last year's regional champ had more than the usual look of disbelief on her face.

As soon as a disappointed Haley sat down and talked with dad David, the two delivered an official protest.

A hunt for dictionaries followed and revealed Haley had indeed spelled it right. But trophies already had been handed out to three other contestants, and Haley headed home with family awaiting official word later in the day.

A later review of the tape recording of the event proved to the judge that Haley hit every letter right. And a ruling by Times Spelling Bee director Kenneth Darrow, a retired Highland teacher, added Haley as the fourth eight-grade winner for the Hammond District.

Darrow said it was fortunate there were only three spellers left after Haley. It would have been more complicated if other spellers went down after her.

"That's about as fair a situation as you can ask for," Darrow said.