Daring competitors from across the globe hurled themselves down a sheer hillside in Gloucestershire yesterday after giant runaway cheeses.
The torrential rain made the annual Bank Holiday Cheese Rolling Contest at Cooper's Hill, in Brockworth, more treacherous than ever, with one race-winner being carried away on a spinal board after hurting his back as he hurtled past the finish line head over heels.
Mud-caked contestants - from as far a field as Australia, New Zealand and Japan - struggled to climb the slippery 200m slope before turning round and tumbling, flipping and somersaulting to the bottom in pursuit of a giant circle of Double Gloucester.
Cooper's Hill has a 1:1 gradient in places but organisers claimed the wet weather had softened the ground, reducing the risk of serious injury.
It is thought the tradition of cheese rolling may date back as far as the ancient Britons or the Romans, but no-one knows for sure how the race started.
During rationing between 1941 and 1954, a wooden substitute with a token piece of cheese inside was chased by competitors.
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