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They had a hot time with some hot stuff in the Legion clubrooms on Saturday evening.听
Nine competitors in the Estevan Royal Canadian Legion鈥檚 Hot Pepper Eating Contest, took their assigned places on a makeshift stage complete with cups of milk and garbage bags and then got to work while about 100 spectators dined on chili con carne in various stages of intensity.听
A prize of $100 awaited the final pepper-chewer, Mike Grobbink, who claimed the title, but only after several rounds of heat-inducing pepper consumption.听
In fact, all the players made it through the seven pepper preliminary round which consisted of the introductory Red Fresno pepper with its 5,000 Scoville heat unit rating. 鈥淭hey ate those like the rest of us would eat a carrot,鈥� said Chad Laviolette who served as the chew-by-chew commentator.听
In ascending order, the nine contestants completely consumed (Scoville heat ratings in parenthesis) green jalapeno (8,000); red jalapeno (10,000); Serrano (25,000); green Thai chili (100,000); red Thai chili (150,000) and finally, the orange habanero (350,000), a pepper that was 70 times hotter than the Fresno.听
Each contestant had one minute to completely consume each pepper and the first person to reach for the milk and drink, was out.听
As the second round started, which included triple doses of the red and green peppers, one competitor Alex Neumann was overheard declaring, 鈥渢his is just insane!鈥澨�
He was also the first one to exit the contest amidst a round of applause and cheers as he wiped the tears and took a good chug from the 鈥渂aby bottle鈥� that was deemed to be an obligatory drink for the first person out.听
Neumann鈥檚 exit though was quickly followed by Danial Sajid and Brian Enns who declared they had no further interest in the pursuit.听
The only female competitor, Lisa McGillis went through the complete second round of multiple peppers before conceding defeat. Again, it was only a few seconds later and fellow contestants Don Dowe and Josh Moreau said they had enough.听
That left Tyson Hennigar and Grobbink as the last men sitting and chewing what became a hot pepper salad consisting of a full variety of the peppers which the two consumed within the time limit as the sweat appeared on the brows and cheeks.
The two contestants chatted briefly, discussing the possibility of splitting the winnings, but then determined they鈥檇 play it out.听
Hennigar showed the first sign of vulnerability, as he had a minor gagging reflux in the next round, but got through the mixture. However, the prospects of repeating were too much and he declared himself out of the running before the start of the next round. The two finalists shook hands and then sought some cooler temperatures with Grobbink exiting through the back door to find his relief while exclaiming he probably wouldn鈥檛 take on that kind of challenge again.听
鈥淚 really like hot sauces on my food 鈥� things like that, but that鈥檚 nothing like what this was,鈥� he said with a forced grin.
Grobbink later returned to the clubrooms to accept congratulations from contest organizers who stated that, due to the obvious popularity of the event, they might look at promoting another similar event next spring.
