Junichiro Koizumi, the 59-year-old Health and Welfare Minister who is popular with the younger wing of Japan's ruling party, today became the third contender vying to replace Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.
And these are minted in limited quantities, with a horde of contenders vying for each.
All week it had been jammed with contenders vying for the title: Bryant, Mahan, Lehman, Singh, O'Hair, etc. Now all the names were gone but Woods.
The United States has been a juggernaut in the women's eight, winning the last 10 world championships, but Wilkinson's boat from Team Canada promises to be one of a handful of contenders vying to end that championship run.
Emicile Bonhomme, 44, has a view from her refugee tent of the crumpled national palace, where hanging on a fence are black and white photos of the 19 contenders vying to occupy it.
If you haven't seen Game of Thrones, a quick word of explanation: Khaleesi is one of the main contenders vying to rule the fictional kingdom of Westeros from the Iron Throne.
The day also saw competing visits to Capitol Hill by the vying vice-presidential contenders, Dick Cheney and Joseph I. Lieberman, and sharp division among Republicans over how to end the lame-duck 106th session.
Although Proposition 22 has not become a subject of much debate for the presidential contenders vying for votes in the March 7 primary, both sides expect the issue to receive a high profile in the next two weeks.
My own personal worst campaign moment came at the New York gubernatorial debate, when the lights went up to reveal seven contenders vying for the right to lead the state, one of whom was famous only for her claim to be the madam who supplied Eliot Spitzer with prostitutes.
Texas politics has sobered up some over the years, but this year's Democratic presidential primary contest is likely to be as hard-fought as any, with the contenders vying to exploit differences among women and Hispanics and wrest the slightest advantage from otherwise obscure hot local races.
There are several contenders vying to be the virtual platform that makes meaning of all of this data.
