Crazy Canadians copy cheese rolling

IT'S a madcap, dirty and bone-breaking Gloucestershire tradition – and now crazy Can- adians are doing it.

Cheese-rolling has crossed continents to Whistler, in British Columbia.

Residents reckon they're hard cheeses as they host their 1st Annual Cheese Rolling Festival.

Cooper's Hill, near Brockworth, has been swapped for an equally treacherous slope in the resort town, 78 miles north of Vancouver.

The Canadians are obviously a fit and tough bunch as the area's better known for its alpine skiing and mountain biking.

The new cheese-rolling website boasts: "Spectators ate cheese – contestants ate dirt".

The winners take home an 11lbs wheel of cheese.

The first men's winner Antoine Guay, 19, from Montreal but living in Whistler, revealed his technique was to "run non-stop and dive across the finish line".

But Gloucestershire's reigning winner, Chris Anderson, who's captured his cheese five years running, said the copy-cat competition wouldn't beat the real thing.

He said: "I wish them luck. It's quite good they're doing it, but it's never going to be as good as the original.

"It's a crazy tradition and good fun for the local community and attracts people from all around the world.

"Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians come to our cheese-rolling and are good fans, so I guess that's how their event has happened.

"But our's is the best."

Chris had said he would quit the event after being asked to by pregnant girlfriend Sophie Bace.

But following his triumph, the die-hard daredevil ate his words and vowed to continue to break the standing record of 21 wins.

He added: "I've been doing it for six years and won for the past five.

"My advice to a novice is just run and lean back as far as you can – and if you fall over just let yourself because if you try to stop you'll break your bones. And I broke my ankle in 2004."

The Whistler website brands the Brits as a little off-the-wall.

Asking the question "Which nutters invented cheese-rolling?", it answers "The English of course: they're all a bit eccentric".

More than 6,000 visitors came to marvel and cheer on competitors at the last event