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One ton pumpkin wins European championship

October 9, 2017

For the second year in a row a Belgian man has secured the title of growing the heaviest pumpkin in Europe. The behemoth vegetable weighed in at more than a ton.

https://p.dw.com/p/2lTtm
Deutschland Kürbis-EM- Sieger Mathias Willemijns aus Belgien
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Gollnow

Belgian farmer Mathias Willemijns' colossal pumpkin weighed in at 1,008 kilograms (2,222 lbs), earning him the European Pumpkin Championship title in the German town of Ludwigsburg on Sunday.

The 24-year-old fell short of his pumpkin of last year, which weighed 1,190 kilograms to set a world record.

The mammoth pumpkin was grown over the course of more than a hundred days, sometimes needing up to a thousand liters of water in the summer heat. It can gain up to 30 kilograms per day.

Second place this year went to Italian Stefano Cutrupi's 849 kilogram pumpkin, followed by Polish farmer Dominik Kedziak at 836 kilograms.

On November 5, the pumpkins will be cut into hand sized pieces.

Pumpkin festivals in the US

Also this weekend, pumpkins were being celebrated at various events in the US. At Damriscotta in the state of Maine on the US east coast on Sunday, a pumpkin was dropped off a tall crane on to an old car chassis below:

cw/jm (dpa)