A Unique Tournament in England Featuring 85 Snails Competing for a Sole Champion.
Fans watching the race known as the “World Snail Racing Championship” (Photo: NYTimes).
While the world’s top athletes gather at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in a small village in the United Kingdom, dozens of tiny “athletes” are present to participate in a tournament called the World Snail Racing Championship.
This race features a total of 85 snails competing, divided into 8 heats. The racetrack consists of a moist cloth spread over a table. The snails begin the race from within a concentric circle.
The winning snail is the first to cross a distance of 13.5 inches (approximately 34.29 cm) to reach the outermost circle.
A man with the winning snail in the race (Photo: NYTimes).
Nicholas Dickinson, the organizer of the race, stated that this is certainly not a sport for the impatient. This is because the “athletes” can only move a few dozen centimeters per hour.
Many snails do not move directly towards the finish line; instead, they choose to wander, cling to one another, or even remain stationary.
Nevertheless, Dickinson emphasized that the efforts of the snails are no less than the exertion of Olympic-level athletes. This is due to the fact that a large part of a snail’s soft body is made up of a single muscle gland.
This muscle secretes a thin layer of mucus and utilizes contractions and extensions to propel the creature forward. This form of movement requires energy 12 times greater than running, according to NYTimes.
According to Dickinson, the current world record belongs to a snail capable of moving 34 cm in 2 minutes. At that speed, the snail would take up to 6 days to cover a distance of 1.6 km.
He also noted that the race is an opportunity to raise awareness about the benefits and harms of garden snails. They originally hail from the Mediterranean but have gradually become popular worldwide.
Garden snails can devastate agriculture as they cause significant damage to the environment.
Accordingly, the garden snail (scientific name: Cornu aspersum) is favored as a food source in some regions, but it is also considered a pest in agriculture.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) states that these snails can wreak havoc on agriculture and natural areas in Florida due to their significant environmental damage, particularly in tropical and subtropical areas.
However, snails are used in various pharmaceutical ingredients, such as skin creams and gels sold in the U.S. This type of cream is suitable for use on wrinkles, scars, dry skin, and acne to reduce pigmentation, scarring, and wrinkles.
The mucus of snails is believed to contain abundant resources that can be used to treat biological diseases in humans, notably combating the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
