Egg throwing bid for official sport status rejected

The 2011 World Egg Throwing Championship takes place on the 26 June in Swaton

Sport England has rejected the initial bid by organisers of a Lincolnshire egg throwing contest who want it recognised as an official sport.

Sport England said it had rejected the bid because it failed to fully meet their criteria, including having an official constitution.

The World Egg Federation said it was disappointed but would bid again.

A spokesman said he hoped to have egg throwing included as a demonstration sport in the 2012 Olympics.

Physical activity

A Sport England spokesperson said: "When deciding whether to recognise a sport, we and the other sports councils look to see if it meets the Council of Europe's European Sports Charter definition.

"Sport means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels.

"But this is only one of the criteria that needs to be met in the pre-application and it doesn't mean that if the council's definition is met that we will then go on to recognise it as a sport.

"This pre-application has been assessed and rejected because it failed to fully meet the criteria, including providing evidence of financial accounts, evidence of any membership base or a constitution for national governing body."

Egg throwing, which takes place in Swaton, involves five separate disciplines:

• Russian egg roulette which involves smashing eggs against the forehead

• A two-person throwing and catching event

• An egg "relay" where 11 people throw and egg along a 100m course

• Egg target practice with a human as the target

• Firing an egg at a human target

Federation president Andy Dunlop said: "I believe four of the egg throwing disciplines do meet the requirements: the two person throw-and-catch, static relay, target throwing and egg trebuchet.

"But we might look at the Russian egg roulette again - even though it takes great skill to smash the egg onto the forehead," he said.