Women take part in the fruit-eating competition in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, May 22: How many bananas can you eat in just two minutes? The rate at which some participants ate the energy-rich fruit at a festival here would have done even Man Vs Food host Adam Richman proud.

Sixteen bananas in two minutes! Hard to believe, but visitors thronging the second edition of the fruit festival, which concluded today, saw participants of the fruit-eating competition make a pile of bananas disappear from their plates before you could say, “A banana a day….”

The competition included more than 40 participants, including 13 below the age of 12 years. While both winners in the above-12 category — men and women — finished 16 bananas each, the winner in the below-12 category ate eight-and-a-half bananas.

The most delightful part of the competition was the children’s category in which 13 kids took part. As soon as the organisers switched on the start button, the children started gobbling the bananas at a brisk pace. Their parents were right beside them, holding water bottles to ensure that their wards did not choke. The competition was so stiff that the organisers had to count the banana peels twice before declaring the results.

“The competition is being conducted to encourage children to eat fruits. But, at the same time, we had to ensure that nothing untoward happened. The number of participants was nearly 10 more than last year’s,” said Debashis Patnaik, an official who managed the competition. The winners later received prizes in the valedictory session.

“We have been eagerly awaiting the fruit-eating competition. This kind of competition encourages people to understand the nutritional value of fruits,” said Dibya Dipanjan Kar, a Class VII student of DAV Public School, Unit-VIII, who emerged winner in the below-12 category. Kar had also won last year’s competition held on Exhibition Ground.

The registration fee for the competition was fixed at Rs 50 and Rs 20 for adults and children respectively. Snigdha Sucharita Sahu was adjudged the winner in the women’s category. Satrughna Pal and Ranjan Kumar Sahu became joint winners in the men’s section.

The participants had been given 12 bananas in the initial stage to eat within two minutes, but the enthusiasm of some of them made the organisers serve up a few more.

Hundreds of visitors who came to watch the competition were left astonished. “The speed at which some of the participants were gobbling down the bananas was unbelievable. I would never have thought that one person could eat 16 bananas in just two minutes!” said Sashikant Behera, a visitor.

However, doctors have severely criticised such “insensible games”. “Recently, a child at a Calcutta school died attempting just such a feat. He choked on the bananas and died before he could be saved at a hospital. Such insensible games should be severely criticised and their organisers taken to task. Children do not have mature-enough reflexes to swallow fruits at such a fast pace,” said Dr Soumitra Dutta, a leading paediatrician.