NOT MANY rural towns can boast having world-famous quirky events, but Llanwrtyd Wells does just that.

Dubbed Wales’ smallest town, it prides itself on hosting the weird and wonderful World Bog Snorkelling Championships.

Waen Rhydd peat was packed with people on a blistering hot day on Sunday, August 25, where more than 160 bog loving hopefuls competed by donning a snorkel and flippers.

They swam two consecutive lengths of a 60-yard water-filled and eel-infested trench as quickly as possible with only leg power and no arms strokes.

The event that Lonely Planet described as one of the top 50 "must do" things from around the world celebrated its 34th snorkelling championship.

Bog snorkellers travelled from far and wide to take part in the quirky event including participants from Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden and USA making it a "truly international world championship", organisers said.

This year's championship saw the highest number of entries since the event started in 1985.

The current world champion and world record holder Neil Rutter, from Swindon, failed to break his own record with a time of 1 minute 21.78 seconds. At the 2018 championship, Mr Rutter clocked a time of 1 minute 18.82 seconds which broke the previous world record of 1 minute 22.56 seconds set in 2014 by Kirsty Johnson from Surrey.

The Ladies Champion was Betsy Creak with a time of 1 minute 42.22 seconds and the Overseas Champion was Ian Maclachlan from South Africa with a time of 1 minute 38.75 seconds.

Bob Greenough, more commonly known as Bob From The Bog, has worked for Green Events, the World Bog Snorkelling Championship organisers, since 2007.

He said: "Bog snorkelling is utterly ridiculous and it’s for everyone, all ages, abilities, shapes and sizes. The championships attract serious athletes but also lots of people in fancy dress who are there to make fun of themselves."

The unusual sporting event recently celebrated being part of the 'Curious Customs' stamp series which was issued by Royal Mail in July.