Annual speed eating competition brings Curtin Malaysia students together

Miri – 4 June 2019 – 43 students of Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) participated in Speed Eater 2019, a speed eating competition organised by the university’s Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Student Chapter at its campus recently.

Held annually, the IChemE Student Chapter’s signature event is aimed at gathering students of the university across all disciplines for a fun event and get to know more about IChemE and the Curtin Malaysia IChemE Student Chapter.

Themed ‘The Tastes of Life’, the competition saw not only its largest number of competitors ever but also an exceptionally large audience, who included Curtin Malaysia’s Chief Operating Officer, Ir. Pieter Willem Pottas.

A large organising team of 29 volunteers led by organising chairperson Yap Tshun Li and vice-organising chairperson Fadel Juber prepared and served the food, in addition to being linesmen for the competition.

Each round of the competition featured a different type or flavour of food and only the competitors who finished fastest in each round got to move to the next round.

Kicking off with the full field of 43 competitors, the first round featured savoury food comprising a personal-sized pizza, a large piece of chicken, brownie and soft drink. In the second round, which featured sour food, 20 competitors downed bitter gourd juice and lemon slices.

The third and final round saw the last 10 competitors gorging on spicy food comprising Ayam Penyet with Sambal Setan and Samyang spicy Korean noodles. The first three to finish – Joseph Yu Jet Chong, Simon James, and Eirik Phila – were declared the champion, first and second runner-ups respectively.

According to Yap, the IChemE Student Chapter chose to organise a Speed Eater competition as its annual team-building event because the concept of a speed eating competition is still relatively new within the campus community at Curtin Malaysia, which also has annual Amazing Race and treasure hunt events for students.

“We have managed to make it a very unique signature event for the campus, attracting more and more competitors each year. Furthermore, it does not take much in terms of pre-event preparation compared to other events. It also fulfills our aims of bringing our students of diverse nationalities and backgrounds together for a bit of fun before the final exams, and raising awareness of the issue of food wastage in the community,” said Yap.

“We are very pleased with the success of this year’s competition and look forward to even greater participation next year,” he added.

Speed Eater 2019 was supported by Assistant Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin, State Assemblyman for Piasau Datuk Sebastian Ting, the Curtin Malaysia Student Council, Garden House Senadin, Restoran Surabaya, Chickilicious Miri, The Happy Cook, MoreFun and Santino’s Pizza.

Chief Operating Officer Ir Pieter Willem Pottas (centre), organising committee members and competitors pose for group photo.

Ir Pieter Willem Pottas presenting prize to the champion, Joseph Yu Jet Chong.