Baby Crawling Race in Lithuania

June 1, 2008: Lithuanian babies compete in a crawling race to mark International Child Protection Day.

25 infants took part in Lithuania's annual baby crawling contest held in Vilnius to find the 'fastest crawler in the land.'



Lithuania's fastest crawling baby crowned.

Twenty-five infants took part in Lithuania's annual baby crawling contest in Vilnius on Sunday (June 1) to find the 'fastest crawler in the land'.

The purpose of the competition is to find the fastest crawler in Lithuania and mark International Child Protection Day.

The annual baby racing contest has become something of a spectator sport since it was first staged in Vilnius nine years ago.

This year 25 babies - aged between 7 and 12 months - raced at variable speed across the the 5-metre track. At the finish line, parents frantically jangled keys and dangled toys to entice their offspring. But for some of the participants, maintaining focus and direction proved too much.

Nine month old Banga Sakalauske took just eleven seconds to clamber across the finish line into the arms of her mother, Viktorija, and was crowned this year's champion crawler.

After the race mother Viktorija Sakalauskiene said she and Banga's father were very pleased and that there was no special training behind their success.

"We feel very well. We are very happy, we haven't trained, there were no special preparations before the race. We just trusted her and she won," she said.

Banga's father added that the victory did did not come as a shock. "We expected her to win, because she's very lively and crawls very fast," Irmantas Sakalauskas said.