Washington: Sathwik Karnik, an Indian-origin boy from Massachusetts has won this years National Geographic Bee contest after gruelling rounds testing his geographic knowledge about lions in Botswana, mountain ranges in Asia and port cities in England. To secure this title, Karnik, 12, correctly named Chimborazo as the mountain in Ecuador that represents the farthest point from the Earths center.

Karnik, a native of Norfolk, south of Boston, is a 7th grader at King Philip Regional Middle School while his family hails from south India. The national competition this time round turned out to be dominated by the Indian-Americans even as in the finals held in Washington yesterday, eight of the 10 finalists, who competed among the four million participants for the competition, were Indian-Americans.

In addition to Karnik, the third place was grabbed by Sanjeev Uppaluri, 11, fifth-grader at Fulton Sunshine Academy in Roswell, a suburb of Atlanta and the fourth place went to Virginias Akhil Rekulapelli, 12, seventh-grader at Stone Hill Middle School in Ashburn. Karnik will take home the spoils of the Bee prize that include a USD 25,000 college scholarship, an all-expenses paid trip to the Galapagos Islands, and a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society, National Geographic reported.

This is the third year in a row that a member of the Karnik family has placed in the top 10 of the National Geographic Bee. Sathwiks brother, Karthik, took fifth place at the 2011 Bee and sixth place at the 2012 Bee. But it is Sathwik who realised the family dream.