The Akita Prefectural Government in Japan has given its Best Japanese Pumpkin Contest award to the grower of a 196-pound pumpkin.
The Mainichi Daily News reported Sunday farmer Mitsuo Takahashi of Kyowa, Japan, won the 14th annual event held in Ogata in the prefecture Sunday.
The newspaper said the pumpkin was the lightest winning entry in the contest's history because typhoons during August reduced the number of participating growers to fewer than half the normal number.
"I want to show a pumpkin weighing more than 440 pounds (200 kilograms) in 2005," the 74-year-old Takahashi said.
Takahashi's winning pumpkin was an Atlantic Giant, which is reportedly tasteless and intended for animal feed, Mainichi said.
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