Heat six of the New Zealand Chilli Eating Championships took place on Thursday night when contestants had to swallow some of the hottest chillis in the world.
The chillis started from a jalapeno rated at 8000 on the Scoville scale that measures spiciness or heat, to the Carolina Reaper rated at 2.4 million Scovilles.
Defending Dunedin champion Stefan Brent did not get the job done and was defeated by William Lindekilde, who will head to Auckland for the national finals to represent the South next month
The Dunedin event organiser, Stu Dreaver, said chilli eating was like running a marathon.
"It’s intense; it’s an unreal experience. It starts off all right, then your body goes into shock and your endorphins start kicking in," Mr Dreaver said.
"A lot of care goes into chilli eating. You’ve got to prepare for it, you’ve got to train, you’ve got to eat chillis before you come.
"One of the tricks of old chilli eaters is they always have cream rice before the start — it seems to soothe the stomach and put a lining on it."
By Mark John
