Post date: May 20, 2013 2:12:51 PM
47-year-old Glenn Walsh munches through two bags of watercress in just 36 seconds to claim a new world record at an annual festival to celebrate the leafy vegetable.
ALRESFORD, HAMPSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM (MAY 19, 2013) (HOT UNDER THE COLLAR) - Watercress enthusiasts gathered in southern England on Sunday (May 19) for an annual celebration of the leafy vegetable.
Britain is home to much of today's watercress production. The watercress sandwich became a British institution between the world wars, when the population depended on local products.In subsequent years watercress fell out favour with consumers, but has seen a resurgence in popularity thanks to its reputation as a 'superfood'
"Watercress has always been known as a superfood, I think it just ran out of a little bit of fashion in the last 10 or 20 years but there really is a big resurgence with the product because of the health benefits to do with calcium, vitamin C but also more recently there's been some work done on the cancer fighting properties of watercress and that now has created that new interest in the product," said Tom Ameryfrom the Watercress Company.
To celebrate this historic salad leaf, England's watercress capital Alresford hold an annual eating contest. The World Watercress Eating Championships involves competitors aiming to eat two bags of watercress in the quickest possible time.
"The eating championship was a bit of fun to start with and what we wanted to do was create something that we could mark the festival with each year that would have a little bit of competitive fun and so they're eating a number of bags in round about 50 seconds, so its mainly men as usual but they really do enjoy it," added Amery.
There were 10 entrants in this year's line up which included the current Guinness World record holderSam Batho, last year's winner Rajesh Patel and former world champion Glenn Walsh. Expectations were therefore high that a new world record could be set.
33-year-old Rajesh Patel made the early pace but a seeming lack of lubrication was his downfall asGlenn Walsh stole the victory in the last few seconds. In doing so he did indeed set a new world record of 36 seconds and regained his world championship crown.
After taking the crown, Walsh said a few pints of the local brew helped to prepare his stomach for the onslaught of watercress, "...just to stretch the tummy, lubricate the throat; but besides that no nothing, just keep off the greens for the whole year and then you are good for it once a year!"