We’ve told you about the benefits of crawling — from building strength and coordination to connecting with parents from a distance — but now we can add one more thing to the list: race winner. At least, that’s the case if you’re at the annual baby crawling competition in Lithuania.
The 20th annual event took place on June 1st in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, to celebrate International Children’s Day. Twenty-five bundles of joy crawled down a 16-foot red carpet, with family and total strangers cheering them on.
At one end of the track were the babes, ages 7 to 1 year old. At the opposite end were parents and grandparents waving toys, cookies, phones and whatever else they thought could entice their little ones to speed down the path.
And the winner of the Lithuanian is…
Ignas Dovydaitis, was the first to cross the finish line. ABC News reports the babe will celebrate his first birthday in two weeks.
Not the Only Baby Crawling Competition
Needless to say, this isn’t the only baby race out there. A simple YouTube search uncovers tons of videos featuring crawling competitions at sporting events — from Miami HEAT and Sacramento Kings to Wisconson Badgers and San Antonio Spurs games. But every city seems to offer some racing event at any public gathering.
Internationally, things seem to be bigger. In 2015 Today covered a race at a shopping mall in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo. Japanese publisher Benesse sponsored the event, where more than 600 babies competed. According to the article, the competition “was logged as a new Guinness World Record, replacing the previous record of 451 infants at a similar race in China last year.”
