OCNews

The team of Aliz Totivan and Norbert Pozsonyi brought the full capacity crowd in Okanagan College’s lecture theatre to its feet when they shattered the previous Spaghetti Bridge world record by 90 kilograms this afternoon.

The Hungarian duo built the bridge, which weighed 982 grams and held 443.58 kilograms (975 lbs), over the course of 10 days before carefully packing it and making the flight from Europe to compete. Totivan and Pozsonyi captured second place in the competition last year and spent a considerable amount of time perfecting their building technique to ensure success at the 2009 competition.

“We built a lot of test bridges while we were at home,” said Totivan. “Our last test bridge held 418 kilograms and then it broke the testing machine so we weren’t sure how much our final bridge would actually hold.”

Today’s competition marked a final chapter in their Okanagan College Spaghetti Bridge careers. After placing second in the competition in 2008 and winning in 2009, the duo will spend 2010 focusing on their studies at Szechenyi Istvan University of Gyor. They will return to Hungary for classes on Monday but before they leave Kelowna they plan on trying snowboarding at Big White.

“We have never snowboarded and we are so excited to try it,” said Pozsonyi.

Finishing in second place in the heavyweight division were Okanagan College students Brendon Syryda and Tyler Pearson. Their bridge weighed 982 grams and supported 98.71 kilograms before faltering. Rounding out third place was Okanagan College’s David Martin, whose bridge weighed 1,000 grams and held 93.69 kilograms.

In the post-secondary and secondary team and individual competitions, students attempt to build strong but light bridges that will hold a specified weight. The lightest bridge to hold the pre-determined weight wins.

The post-secondary team competition winners were Jerry Gaba, Darin Jerow and Jen Halas from Okanagan College. They were the only team in the post-secondary category whose bridge successfully made it through to the final round of testing. Their bridge weighed 87 grams.

The secondary team winners were all from Kelowna. In first place were Mike Pinkney and Thomas Mitchell from KSS (85 grams). In second place were Colton Poitras, Cody Hurlburt, Carson Lamoth and Michael Dzakic from KLO Middle School (87 grams). KLO also finished third with the team of William Monforton, Kevin Eger, Eric Nadeau and Jonathan Cameron (101 grams).

Post-secondary individual winners were: Norbert Pozsonyi and Aliz Totivan from Szechenyi Istvan University of Gyor (148 grams). In second place from Okanagan College was Matt Gowing (274.9 grams).

The secondary individual competition was swept by students from KLO Middle School. In first place was Luca Starone (171 grams). Second place went to Jonathan Halbgwachs (202 grams). In third place was Christopher Papke (207 grams).