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Lumby dominates spaghetti bridge contest

Teams from Charles Bloom took the top two spots in the heavyweight competition
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Photo submitted Justin Dessert and Hanya Riddick take home the top prize during the Okanagan College spaghetti bridge contest Saturday.

The 34th annual spaghetti bridge competition came to a dramatic close Saturday after a duo from Lumby’s Charles Bloom Secondary tested their bridge to the point of fail.

The first-place winning team of Justin Dessert and Hanya Riddick took home the top cash prize of $1,500 for a pasta structure that withstood 255.06 kilograms of load.

The second place bridge was built by James Dessert, also of Lumby, and it held 207.29 kilograms of load and earned him a cash prize of $1,000.

A team of students from UBC Okanagan finished third in the contest, which was postponed after technical difficulties prevented the judges from testing the heavyweight bridges at the initial competition March 3. Ephraim Nowak and Raphael Nowak built a bridge that failed under 120.58 kilograms of load.

“We were extremely pleased to recognize the competitors and be able to declare winners in the 2017 competition,” said event organizer Michelle Lowry.

“We really appreciate the students’ patience while we worked to resolve our testing issues and are aware of just how much work goes into building these great bridges.”

In order to qualify for the competition, the bridges could not weigh more than one kilogram prior to testing.

Fourth place was not awarded, as the other bridge tested did not meet the minimum threshold of 10 kilograms of load.