With 176-point ‘braconid’, word whiz clinches world Scrabble title - just don’t ask him what it means

World-class marathoners can rack up a couple hundred kilometres a week. Competitive eaters stretch their guts by chugging several litres of water in seconds. Prior to the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps burned through a daily 12,000-calorie diet. And for two hours a day, Brett Smitheram sat down with a dictionary.

He would ultimately memorise 70,000 words, each seven or eight letters long.

It was time well spent. The 37-year-old consultant from London credits that, plus a photographic memory, for securing his first-place victory at the World Scrabble Championship in Lille, France, on Sunday.

Words that paved his path to the top included periagua (76 points, a dugout canoe), gynaecia (95 points, reproductive parts of a flower) and the clincher, braconid. A braconid is a type of wasp that lays its eggs on a live host, typically a grub, which then gets eaten alive by the wasps’ babies.

Just don’t ask Smitheram to know, necessarily, the precise meaning behind each such word. “Memorising definitions uses up valuable brain space,” he told the New York Times. “Scrabble is an endurance sport and requires a lot of stamina.”

Braconid scored him 176 points. It earned another five points, the Guardian reported, after a doubtful opponent challenged its legitimacy. Smitheram’s pot - 7,000 euros, or about US$7,800 - was a rather modest affair for a global gaming tournament.