Yes it’s spelled correctly, and yes competitors kick each others shins to win (painfully).
The event takes place in Chipping Cambden in England’s Cotswold district as it has every year for the past 400 years as part of what is now called the Cotswold Olimpicks.
These are largely fun and harmless events which include wheel-barrow racing, potato-sack race, tug of war: harmless that is until you get to the shin-kicking event.
According to event chairman Graham Greenall, the event was originally more like judo where you grab your opponent and through tugging and twisting and use of your legs one tries to trip the other to the ground. Over time it got rather rougher with competitors using steel toed boots as they flailed at each other’s shins. Broken bones were not uncommon he says. Competitors also used to harder their shins on the lead up to a competition by banging them with hammers.
While since the 1950’s that is no longer the case, competitors still can get a nasty set of bruises and a misplaced kick can land where it really hurts.
Competitors are allowed to stuff their pants with straw to lessen the blow, although one suspects that’s more of a psychological comfort.
This year, 24-year-old Vancouver Canada resident Ross Langil travelled to the small rural British town specifically to compete in the shin-kicking event (and the famous downhill cheese rolling)
His opponent in the final was another 24-year-old, two-time defending champ Zak Warren, a 24-year-old stonemason from the region.
He outlasted his opponent taking him down in two straight falls to win.
After his victory he said, its mostly his feet that hurt.
YOUTUBE VIDEO 2014
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