Woman wins chaotic UK cheese race despite being knocked unconscious

A 19-year-old woman from Canada won a frantic cheese-chasing race down a steep hill despite being knocked out during the extreme sporting event in the U.K. that dates back two centuries.

Hundreds of spectators gathered Monday to watch dozens of reckless racers chase a 7-pound 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.

Delaney Irving, of Nanaimo, British Columbia, won the women's race despite being briefly knocked unconscious.

"I just remember hitting my head, I remember hurting, and then I remember waking up in the tent," Irving told Greatest Hits Radio Gloucester.

🇨🇦 Speaking to us afterwards, Delaney Irving confirmed she was okay and told us she was heading off to hospital as a precaution #cheeserolling pic.twitter.com/8yBbzXsYDl

— Greatest Hits Radio Gloucester (@GHRGloucester) May 29, 2023

The outlet tweeted video of the women's race, saying, "Irving won't remember much of winning."

The cheese-rolling race has been held at Cooper's Hill, about 100 miles 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 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."

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• United Kingdom