A Minnesota horticulture teacher set a world record in California on Monday for the heaviest pumpkin after growing a giant jack-o’-lantern gourd weighing 2,749 pounds (1,247 kilograms).
Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota, won the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California, with an enormous, lumpy, orange pumpkin that could produce at least 687 pies.
“I was not expecting that. It was quite the feeling,” said Gienger, 43, who has been growing pumpkins for nearly 30 years and last year set a new U.S. record for growing a giant gourd.
I assume that’s the general pattern for most World’s ______est ________. An obvious example is some Olympic world records where second place is a few hundredths of a second behind, and 100th place is maybe 5 seconds. Those last few seconds/pounds/whatever make all the difference in the world at the highest levels of competitions.
Yeah being the 99th percentile makes you pretty darn good, but it’s really the top 1/10th if not 100th of 1 percent that competition for the “best” begins.
And then there’s women’s 800m freestyle swimming.