47 fabulous photos from Gawthorpe World Coal Carrying Championships 2024

The World Coal Carrying Championships was back with a bang for 2024 – a competition that has gone from strength to strength since it began in 1963.

Over the years, it has been extended to include men’s, women’s and veterans’ races, with a female over-40s category contested for the first time last year.

The Gawthorpe Maypole Committee organises the event every Easter Monday and it is a nod to Wakefield’s mining heritage, two men who survived the Lofthouse Colliery disaster in 1973 were invited to give out prizes.

The event involves men carrying a 50kg sack of coal on their backs and women must carry 20kg across a 1,000-metre distance. The race is timed by using an original pigeon racing clock and volunteers’ stopwatches.

Here are the best photos from this year’s event.