A Canadian woman was knocked unconscious while running after a 3kg cheese wheel, but still managed to win her race at the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake in Brockworth, England, on Monday.
Video footage posted on social media showed Delaney Irving falling while pursuing the Double Gloucester down the almost-vertical Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester.
Irving, 19, said she had only realized she had won the women’s race when she woke up in the medical tent.
Photo: AP
Hundreds of people raced in the contest, which went ahead this year despite safety concerns.
Irving, from Vancouver Island, told the BBC she was not cheesed off by what had happened, and said the race was “good ... now that I remember it.”
“I remember running, then bumping my head and then I woke up in the tent. I still don’t really believe it, but it feels great,” she said.
Several races were held over the day and Matt Crolla, 28, from Manchester, won the first.
“I don’t think you can train for it, can you? It’s just being an idiot,” Crolla said when asked how he prepared for the race.
“I’m glad I’m pretty conscious and I’ve not got many serious injuries,” he added.
Another big cheese was Ryoya Minami from Japan, who was among the winners.
Asked why he entered the race, he said: “Because I love cheese.”
Kyla Hill of Team Cheese, the group of volunteers who help organize the event, said that other competitors had come from the US and Switzerland.
“It puts us [Brockworth village] on the map, makes us a bit famous, draws people in from over the world,” Hill said. “I was talking to a couple last night who’d come over from Washington especially.”
The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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