Bridlington hosts National Tug of War Championships with great success and 'some really tough competition'

Around 300 competitors from 20 different tug of war clubs took part in the Bridlington event, with a number of their supporters attending the event to cheer the teams on.

Alan Knott, the Tug of War Association’s spokesman, said: “We had a great day- we had dry weather and dry ground conditions which made for a keenly contested competition from all of the mens, ladies and junior teams taking part.

“It was great to see a lot of new teams and pullers taking part, particularly ladies and junior teams, and it was great to see everyone enjoying some really tough competition.

“The winning teams from the national tug of war championships will now go on to represent England at the British and Irish Championships in Scotland in August and then the World Championships in Sursee, Switzerland at the end of August, and we would like to take this opportunity to wish our England teams the very best of luck in their preparations for this event.

“Finally, we would like to thank Bridlington Rugby Club and all of their volunteers and Yorkshire Coast BID for their assistance in helping us to stage this event.

“It was a great venue for an event like this, they made us feel very welcome and hopefully we will be able to return again in the future”

The men’s weight categories were dominated by the Lincoln team who went on to win all of the senior mens weight categories on the day. The same was also the case for the Bedford Ladies team who won all four ladies weight categories on offer.

The Lincoln team then went on to win their seventh gold medal of the day by winning the mixed weight category for the second year running after they defeated Bedford in the final.

The two junior events saw the Kilroe team from South Yorkshire take the gold medal in the junior 560kg competition, and Upper Eden from Cumbria win the junior mixed 520kg competition.

More medals came home to Yorkshire too, with York Tug of War Club taking home three bronze medals and a silver medal in the mens 640kg, 680kg, catchweight (no weight limit) and 720kg competitions respectively.

Visit www.tugofwar.co.uk for more information.