Â鶹´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Chaotic U.K. cheese wheel race knocks Canadian unconscious before she wins

Participants compete in the women's downhill race during the Cheese Rolling contest at Cooper's Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, Monday May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) Participants compete in the women's downhill race during the Cheese Rolling contest at Cooper's Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, Monday May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Share
LONDON -

The big cheese of extreme U.K. sports events is back.

Canadian contestant Delaney Irving, 19, won the women's race despite being briefly knocked unconscious.

"I just remember hitting my head, and now I have the cheese," said Irving, who comes from Nanaimo, British Columbia. Hundreds of spectators gathered Monday to watch dozens of reckless racers chase a 7-pound (3 kilogram) wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down the near-vertical Cooper's Hill, near Gloucester in southwest England.

The first racer to finish behind the fast-rolling cheese gets to keep it.

 The cheese-rolling race has been held at Cooper's Hill, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) west of London, since at least 1826, and the sport of cheese-rolling is believed to be much older.

The rough-and-tumble event often comes with safety concerns. Few competitors manage to stay on their feet all the way down the 200-yard (180-meter) hill, and this year several had to be helped, limping, from the course.

Matt Crolla, 28, from Manchester in northwestern England, won the first of several men's races. Asked how he had prepared, he told reporters: "I don't think you can train for it, can you? It's just being an idiot."

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

5 things not to say to a grieving friend

It’s almost impossible to know what to say to someone in the throes of grief. We all want to say something comforting. Very few of us know what that is.

Sometimes love is written in the stars, but for one couple, it’s written in the aurora borealis.

Local Spotlight

James Taylor never expected to be walking home with a bag full of groceries he didn't buy.

This weekend marks the fifth anniversary of a large blizzard that paralyzed Manitoba.

There was an eye-catching mix of rainbows and lightning over Vancouver following a brief downpour this week.

Jeff Warner from Aidie Creek Gardens in the northern Ontario community of Englehart has a passion for growing big pumpkins and his effort is paying off in more ways than one.

Saskatchewan’s Jessica Campbell has made hockey history, becoming the first ever female assistant coach in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Have you ever seen videos of hovercrafts online or on TV and thought, 'Wow, I wish I could ride one of those.' One Alberta man did, and then built his own.

A B.C. couple is getting desperate – and creative – in their search for their missing dog.

Videos of a meteor streaking across the skies of southern Ontario have surfaced and small bits of the outer space rock may have made it to land, one astronomy professor says.

A unique form of clouds made an appearance over the skies of Ottawa on Sunday evening.