Adil Aydın won first prize in this year’s watermelon competition in Diyarbakır, eastern Turkey, with a massive watermelon weighing 56.2 kilograms.

Judges for the event said it was the heaviest watermelon recorded in the region in seventy years.

Mr Aydın was participating in the 10th Culture and Watermelon Promotion Activities [10. Kültür ve Karpuz Tanıtım Etkinlikleri], comfortably beating his challengers.

Runner-up Bilmez Atlı said she weighed the same as her prize fruit of 51.5 kilos, while Hamit Atlı came third with a 50 kg watermelon.

The competition was held in the gardens of the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry, officiated by Sur District Governor and Deputy Mayor Abdullah Çiftçi, and Diyarbakır Provincial Director of Agriculture and Forestry Mustafa Ertan Atalar.

Mr Aydın was presented with a cheque for 5,000 TL (£523), the runner-up 4,000 TL (£418), and third place won 3,000 TL (£314).

Diyarbakır’s winning watermelon was some way of the world record for the heaviest though. That record belongs to American Chris Kent, of Sevierville, Tennessee, whose watermelon weighed an astonishing 159 kg.

The giant watermelon was verified by the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth on 4 October 2013 at the Operation Pumpkin festival, held in Hamilton, Ohio. Seven years on, it remains the heaviest watermelon in history.

Main photo, top, of Adil Aydın being presented with 1st prize in this year’s watermelon competition at 10th Culture and Watermelon Promotion Activities in Diyarbakır, 10 Sep. 2020. Photo © İHA