The world snail racing championship was held in the English village of Congham. The competition involved 85 “athletes” who had to cover a distance of 34,29 cm. This was reported by Mail.ru with reference to Interesting Engineering.
The track consisted of two circles of different diameters. The snails had to complete both circles and finish on the outside. The winner was a mollusk named Jeff, who covered the distance in 4 minutes 5 seconds.
Despite the impressive result, Jeff failed to beat the existing record of 2 minutes. Considering that the maximum speed of snails is about 0,965 km/h, it would take them more than six days to cover one mile.
The winner was presented with the traditional trophy, but the organizers forgot to provide the promised head of lettuce.
The event also had a charitable purpose - about 640 USD was raised for a local church. The organizers hope to continue this unusual tradition in the future.