World burping champ crowned

Competitors downed gallons of fizzy drinks to compete in the first World Burping Championship in New York.

The event was won by pizza chef Tim Janus, 35, with an 18.1 second belch after drinking two gallons of Diet Coke and Mountain Dew.

"I was just trying to condense all the air in my stomach and bring it to the surface," he said.

"You just have to force every last bit of air up. It's beautiful, really."

Sebastian Rothschild, of the World Burping Federation, said: "The goal is to restore burping to a place of respectability in Western culture, and to remove the stigma that has attached itself to this practice during the past millennium."